Meet Tracy Drinkwater

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tracy Drinkwater. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tracy below.

Hi Tracy, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I was a middle school math teacher with nowhere to take my students on a field trip, and I thought, there should be a math museum to help inspire students and support teachers, to engage all visitors in fun and exciting hands-on ways, to inspire folks and transform attitudes. At that time, I was a single mom with two daughters with neuro-atypicalities, one gifted and one with intellectual disability and autism. I loved math growing up and wanted to share my passion, but noticed that so many students, including my daughters, struggled for a variety of reasons. I had a short business tech career and after many years as a stay-at-home parent, I was getting divorced and decided to get my Masters in Teaching with endorsements in Math and Special Education. I taught for five years and was continually frustrated with the limited resources, rigid structures and systems, as well as adult-perpetuated, negative attitudes toward math. I needed to do something different, something creative. So I became a tutor and educational consultant, a part-time instructor at Seattle University’s College of Education, and a School Board Member in my district of Mercer Island. All of these experiences reinforced my dream to start a math museum. As I finished my term on the school board, I started my nonprofit, Seattle Universal Math Museum (SUMM). I’ve never been so fulfilled in bringing together all my passion, creativity and talent in one role.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As the Founder of SUMM, I immediately became the Board President and Acting Executive Director. SUMM started as an all volunteer organization. We recruited for our Board, began fundraising,developed a brand, a business plan, and a fundraising plan with the help of a few consultants. We piloted programs to provide engaging math activities in our target communities for free. As donations and grants came in more reliably and we developed a following, we slowly transitioned to a professional staff. . The growth in both events and revenue has been exponential, which is so exciting and validating of my original vision. Now we still have volunteers, but the bulk of the work is done by 6 full-time and 13 part-time employees. Our Board transitioned from a working board to a governing board. This past year has been amazing as we hired our first paid Executive Director, reached thousands of participants with hundreds of events, and then signed a lease on our initial location, which is office and event space. We call it SUMM Place. We have raised over $2 million since our inception and are steadily achieving the milestones we set for ourselves with plans for more growth ahead.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Determination
2. Broad and deep math education experience
3. Finance/accounting skills from my business degree

Advice: Follow your passions and build experiences, and when you think of a good idea to address the problems you see in the world, work hard to make your own luck. Don’t give up when you meet with a setback or dip. Ride the rollercoaster.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The number one obstacle we are facing is raising the kind of money needed to build the museum fully – to acquire the appropriate location; to design, fabricate and purchase math exhibits; to hire the folks necessary to run it; and provide a variety of programming and outreach events in communities of opportunity. We are talking at least $20 million.

I am working hard to promote SUMM to anyone anywhere. We continue to make meaningful connections locally and globally, to manifest our vision of a world where it’s the norm to experience a joyful connection to mathematics. SUMM endeavors to spark that reality.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

FRAME, with Karoo Design Visualization (this is limited to the renderings)

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