The longtime president of Susan B. Anthony Museum & House is retiring

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The president and CEO of the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House has announced that she will be retiring at the end of this year.

Deborah Hughes has been in the role since 2007. In an interview with WXXI’s Beth Adams, she spoke about what this work has meant to her, the status of long-awaited expansion plans for the museum, and the lasting legacy of Susan B. Anthony.

The following is a transcript of that interview, which was edited for clarity.

Why is this the right time to retire?

Well, the museum is in a really good, strong place. We've got a great board of trustees. Our endowment is growing. We're in a great position for the campus expansion. And so I feel like the organization is stable and ready for the next person to come in and really take them to the next level.

I want to talk about that expansion in a moment, but I want to back up to the beginning. I know that for a quarter of a century, you were an ordained minister serving both Presbyterian and Baptist churches. And I wonder what was it that inspired you to take on this role?

You know, Beth, I thought I would have this role for maybe a year or two. I was an interim in my last position at third Presbyterian Church. And the role of an interim is to help people move along. And I'd been there a couple years, and the committee hadn't been started yet, so I thought I needed to get out of the way. And about at the same time, a friend sent me the job description for the Anthony Museum position and said, ‘This sounds like you to me’, and I thought it was the craziest idea I'd heard.

But what attracted me was the long-standing commitment of the museum to the community and to telling the history with authority and with compassion, but really being a part of Rochester. Also, I had skills in fundraising. I had been Vice President of Development at the Divinity School, and I had done quite a bit of not-for-profit management, so I had a lot of the skills that the museum seemed to be looking for right at that moment in time. So I applied and much to my shock and amazement, it's been 18 years.

And did your career in ministry inform how you approached the leadership of this organization that honors the legacy of an American suffragist?

It did. For one thing, I never believed that we're trying to idolize or lift her out of her humanity and make her some kind of false hero. I suppose that's influenced by my own theology, that human beings are human beings.

Also, one of the things that I learned pretty quickly, I always believed in the church as being a great organization through which to achieve social change. I was aware it also could be a huge barrier and a problem. But when I connected with the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood, which is a wonderfully diverse neighborhood, even though the median household income is only $24,000, I realized that there were organizations beyond churches and organized groups that were just as effective at doing all of the community building that I thought the church was about. So that was an eye opener for me.

Do you think you understand Susan B. Anthony's legacy any differently now than you did before you became president and CEO of the museum?

It's a little frightening how little I knew about Susan B. Anthony when I started at the museum. To be honest, I'm still learning about Susan B. Anthony and her impact. One of the things that's very exciting about working at the museum is that what she believed in is so relevant today. It's more relevant in 2025 than it was five years ago. She really had this passionate belief in humanity. You know, she dealt with more violence and calamity — I mean, she saw some of the worst of humanity in the 19th century — and yet she maintained this hope that we really could become a country where the government was of the people, all the people. And that's something I also believe in passionately, and think that this great experiment and democracy continues, and we're facing some of our greatest challenges.

I'm sure that Susan B. Anthony means many different things to different people. Have you seen that change or evolve as the political atmosphere in this country has intensified?

Yeah. Like any hero, if Susan B. Anthony seems to align with what you want her to align with, then you've got all kinds of things to say about her. Sometimes, even asserting things that she didn't do. But on the other hand, if she aligns with the things that are threatening, she can take vicious attacks. And we've seen that in in different ways over the years.

You know, one of the questions we have dealt with was the question about whether Susan B. Anthony was pro-life or pro-choice, and the museum, of course, would answer saying ‘neither of those.' Those are terms from this century put in this century's context.

I once made a comment that to say she was pro-life or pro-choice, was like saying George Washington drove a Mitsubishi. You know, it doesn't make sense. However, in the context now of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe versus Wade, Susan B. Anthony was very clear in her lifetime that every person should have the authority over their own body and their own destiny, and she was very committed to that, and so we are comfortable making that assertion.

I promised to get back to the project that you mentioned earlier in our conversation. You have spearheaded this ambitious expansion plan for the museum, which will include a new interpretive center on Jefferson Avenue. Where does all of that stand right now?

The idea is that we need more space. We have a collection of items that need to be preserved for another 100, 150 years, and they deserve the highest level of museum storage.

We had a fire several years ago that was an arson. We want to have appropriate fire suppression and protection and security, and we want to have environmental controls 24/7, to make sure that everything that we have now is kept for future generations.

We also have a wonderful opportunity to do a lot of research. We've been collecting for years, long before there was digitization in computer records, and we have items in our collection that could stimulate PhDs. There are five museum studies programs within an hour of the Susan B. Anthony Museum and we would love to do partnerships where students and researchers could come help us process the collection and get the information shared with the world.

The other thing is, we've hit capacity. I don't know if people realize we can only have 35 people in the house at a time, at the fire limit. So, if a big bus comes, we usually have to split them into two groups, entertain them with a program or a meal in one place, while half go through the tours and then switch over. So, the whole museum gets closed for two hours if one motor bus comes.

We also have really wanted to be able to do an interpretive exhibit that could say so much more about Susan B. Anthony's work. People often know about the association with women's rights or with voting rights. But she was an abolitionist. She dealt with pay equity. She was an advocate for co-education and public education. She addressed issues around labor rights, around domestic violence, around substance abuse. There is so much more to her and so much more to the context of the 19th century and those struggles and how they apply to today. And in a house that can only hold 35 people at a time, there's not a lot of exhibit space.

The building (plans are) pretty modest, at 14,000 square feet. But a third of that will be devoted to wonderful, immersive exhibits, and it'll give the Rochester audience in particular a lot of reasons to come back more frequently, because we'll be able to do different programs and lectures in that new space. We'll have space for receptions and gatherings that we don't have now.

It also will be a great economic driver. Every person who comes from out of town and stays overnight, they say, spends an average of $600 in the community. The Susan B. Anthony house will get maybe $25 for that, but there will be other arts and culture venues, there will be restaurants, there will be hotels, there will be shopping, there will be people there. So, our little museum has this great big international reputation with Susan's name, and we'll be able to draw literally millions of dollars into Monroe County that wouldn't come otherwise. And now that we'll have capacity, we can advertise and draw a broader audience.

Which brings us full circle to what you mentioned at the start of this conversation about ministry and serving the community. How optimistic are you that the $25 million fundraising goal for this project will be achieved before you leave?

Before I leave, I don't know. It's definitely true that we're moving ahead with the project. The question of timing is when we have a couple more angels and a lot of community support to help us reach the goal.

We still have to complete the interior design and we expect to have that done before I retire. The plans will go to the city for their review. It will probably be the end of March, before that approval process is done. At that point, we could break ground if we have raised an additional five and a half to $6 million.

That would be enough to assure that we could complete the whole project, and the state would be able to release the $10 million grant that we've been promised for the building overall.

Whether that will happen before December I don't know, but that it's going to happen soon, I am fully confident.

I understand that you will stick around for a transition. Is your successor known yet?

No. In fact, the job description gets posted tomorrow. The board hopes to have someone in place by fall, so that we have some overlap, and I have said to the Board that I'm willing to stay on after retirement to help with the project or to assist with fundraising or in any way that's helpful, but I'm also willing to get out of the way, because sometimes that's what's most helpful.

So, what comes next for you after this, Deborah? Are you going to stay here locally? What are your plans?

Oh, yes, I'm staying in Rochester. I wouldn't go anywhere. (My wife) Emily and I love this community, and we've got family here, and I expect this is real retirement. I don't expect to work. I'm going to do some sailing, and I also really look forward to being engaged in the community in whatever ways are helpful.