Sunny Sumter is President and CEO of the DC Jazz Festival, a nonprofit service organization established in 2004 to present jazz-related cultural and educational programs in the nation’s capital. Its’ signature programs are the annual DC JazzFest, DC Jazz Festival Education, and the Charles Fishman Embassy Series. DC Jazz Festival is the recipient of the DC Mayor’s Art Award for Excellence in Creative Industries. Sumter has raised over $22 million dollars for the DC Jazz Festival and has led/moderated/served on panels on the importance of jazz funding at the U.S. Department of State, DC Deputy Mayor’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, Jazz Philadelphia Summit, and Jazz Congress. Prior to her tenure at DC Jazz Festival, Sumter held management/director positions with the Aspen Institute, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Smithsonian Institution, and Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was awarded the Aspen Institute’s Staff Achievement Award for Excellence. Sumter earned her bachelor’s degree in music business from Howard University where she minored in jazz studies/voice. She is a recipient of a Howard University Benny Golson Award, the Sitar Arts Center Visionary Award, the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Heroes Award, a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, and a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. She was host of Jazz Central on the BET network. As a professional vocalist, Sumter has performed at some of the finest festivals, concert venues, and clubs in the U.S. and internationally. She currently serves on the boards of the HBCU-Jazz Education Initiative and the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers. She is a member of Americans for the Arts, National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences; and served as a program director member of the National Collaboration for Youth. Sumter was recently selected to the prestigious DeVos Institute of Arts Management for a three-year fellow at the University of Maryland Business School; and is one of the “exceptional leaders” selected for National Arts Strategies’ celebrated Chief Executive Program.