Deborah Rutter is the former president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Her tenure at the Kennedy Center was by any measure full of important advances and accomplishments for the nation’s busiest performance venue. Despite her record of accomplishment, President Trump fired her in February, replaced the board of directors of the Center with his supporters, and installed himself as Board Chair.
A long-time arts administrator and advocate, she was the Executive Director of the Seattle Symphony and the Chicago Symphony before being appointed in 2014 as the first woman president of the Kennedy Center.
