Ellen Susman was nominated by Barack Obama in September 2011 to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
17 Facts About Ellen Susman
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Ellen Susman served from 2013 to 2016 as the director of the US Department of State Art in Embassies Program, a public-private partnership of American and international artists, collectors, galleries, foundations, museums and universities.
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Ellen Susman's father was president of Spencer Industries, a family-owned company in Princeton, NJ that manufactured boys' and men's clothes for large retailers.
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Ellen Susman married Stephen Susman, a trial attorney, in 1999.
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Ellen Susman is an accomplished equestrian and owns and exhibits American Saddlebred horses, an avocation shared with her mother, Babette Spencer Santarelli Williams, a recognized equitation instructor and trainer of American Saddlebreds.
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In 2001, Ellen Susman hosted The Myth of Superwoman, a conference that focused on the balancing act women face in their personal and career lives.
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In 2007, Ellen Susman created and produced Balancing Your Life, a program broadcast nationally on PBS that addressed the challenges of managing career and family.
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Ellen Susman edited Danger Pay: Memoir of a Photojournalist in the Middle East, written by her late sister, Carol Spencer Mitchell.
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Ellen Susman collaborated with museum curator Anne Wilkes Tucker to create the Carol Spencer Mitchell Photographic Archive, which consists of approximately 60,000 photos and is housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
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Ellen Susman has served on the Boards of Annie's List, National Jewish Democratic Council, American Leadership Forum in Houston, Recipe for Success, the Texas Tribune, the Democracy Alliance, and the Blanton Museum of Art.
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Ellen Susman has been an Advisory Council Member of the United States Public Service Academy and the University of Houston Friends of Women's Studies and serves on the National Councils of the Aspen Art Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Ellen Susman currently serves on the Rothko Chapel board of directors and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Development board.
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Ellen Susman was one of the recipients of the 2025 Hirshhorn National Arts Award, presented to women whose contributions are central to the cultural life of the nation.
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In 2013, Ellen Susman co-founded The Texas Future Project, a fund-raising corporation that focuses on policy as well as politics.
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Ellen Susman expanded the program by partnering with Ambassador Patrick Gaspard to bring US artists to South Africa, fulfilling the program's mission to create international dialogue and transform lives through art.
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From 2011 to 2012, Susman served on the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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Ellen Susman is president of the Susman Family Foundation, which funds various charitable causes involving the arts, environment and social justice.