Dr. Chelsey Green is the first Black woman elected as the Recording Academy’s chair of the board of trustees. She succeeds Tammy Hurt, who has served in that role since 2021. This marks the first time in Recording Academy history that two women have served back-to-back in the top post.
Dr. Green, 39, is also the youngest person ever elected chair. Dr. Green, who was vice chair last term under Hurt, was selected at this year’s annual board of trustees meeting. Her term officially began on Sunday (June 1). At the same time, Evan Bogart was elected vice chair; Jennifer Blakeman was elected secretary/treasurer; and Hurt was elected chair emeritus.
In Academy history, just two other women (besides Hurt and Green) have served as chair. Leslie Ann Jones was chairwoman (the title at the time) from 1999-2001. Christine Albert was chair from 2013-15.
Green is the third Black officer to be elected chair, following Jimmy Jam (2007-09) and Harvey Mason jr. (2019-21). Mason went on to become the academy’s CEO.
“I am honored to welcome both our newly elected board and national officers to the Recording Academy, made up of passionate, talented leaders who care deeply about music and the people who create it,” Mason said in a statement. “Together, their extensive background in the industry will help us to continue to push the Academy forward and drive meaningful change.”
The Recording Academy’s elected officers dedicate their time in service to the academy and play an important role in helping to shape the organization’s strategic direction. They collaborate with the CEO and senior academy management, who work to fulfill the organization’s mission of serving music people through advocacy, education, and direct assistance and by shining a spotlight on musical excellence.
Here’s a closer look at the top four officers:
Dr. Chelsey Green is a recording artist, entrepreneur and educator. As the bandleader, violinist, violist, and vocalist behind her ensemble Chelsey Green and The Green Project, Dr. Green fuses her classical training with jazz, R&B, soul and funk. She has released five studio projects, with one (2022’s Chelsey Green & the Green Project) landing on Billboard‘s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart in 2014. Dr. Green has performed alongside artists such as Kirk Franklin, Lizzo, Samara Joy, Stevie Wonder, The War and Treaty, and Wu-Tang Clan, and has made orchestral debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Alexandria Symphony, the United States Air Force Band, and more. An advocate for music education and equity, she leads educational concerts, artist residencies, and community workshops, and is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music.
Evan Bogart is a songwriter, producer and creative executive, who has had a hand in creating hits for Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Madonna, Rihanna and more. Son of legendary Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart (who died in 1982 when Evan was just four), Evan got his start in the music industry as a teenager in the Interscope Records A&R department, working on projects by 2Pac and Eminem, before moving into artist management and booking, representing such acts as Maroon 5 and OneRepublic. Currently, he is CEO of Seeker Music. Bogart has been named to Billboard’s 40 Under 40 list twice and to Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players list. Bogart recently served as the executive music producer and composer for Spinning Gold, an independent feature biopic based on his father, and for the musical-feature film, Juliet & Romeo, for which he co-wrote and produced all of the original music. Bogart also serves as chair of the academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing.
Jennifer Blakeman is the chief rights and royalties officer at Seeker Music. For more than four decades, she has fostered the careers of some of the world’s most popular artists and songwriters. She has served in numerous senior executive and creative roles for major and indie publishers, record labels and film studios, including Atlantic Records, one77 Music, Universal Music Publishing, Universal Pictures, and Zomba Publishing. An accomplished musician and ASCAP songwriter and publisher, Blakeman was signed with her band to Warner Bros. Records and subsequently toured in the ‘80s as a keyboardist for Billy Idol, Brian Wilson and Savage Garden, among many others. For two decades she has been an adjunct professor at New York University and has taught more than 1,000 students in the music business degree program.
Tammy Hurt is a TV producer and drummer. She made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ officer in Recording Academy history. She serves on the boards of the Latin Recording Academy, the Grammy Museum and MusiCares. Hurt is the founder of Placement Music, a boutique entertainment firm specializing in custom music and scoring for high-profile clients including FOX Sports, Paramount Pictures, CBS and the NFL. Her passion project, Sonic Rebel, fuses high-fidelity soundscapes with mashups and live drum remixes. Hurt was honored in early 2025 by Billboard, Alicia Keys’ She Is the Music and the Atlanta City Council. Additional accolades include Catalyst Magazine’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs and the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Most Admired CEO award.
Every two years, the voting and professional members of the academy’s 12 chapters vote in their respective chapter board elections to elect their chapter’s governors. Of the trustees that serve on the national board, eight are elected by voting or by professional (non-voting) members of the academy and 30 are elected by the chapter boards. The remaining four seats are composed of the national trustee officers serving the roles of chair, vice chair, secretary/treasurer, and chair emeritus, and are elected by the board of trustees once every two years. National officer positions on the board of trustees are subject to two, two-year term limits.
The academy also released the names of the members of its 2025-27 board of trustees, including 19 newly elected or re-elected members. The full body includes seven Grammy winners: artists Ledisi and Avery Sunshine; songwriter Jonathan Yip; arranger Sara Garzarek; music supervisor Julia Michels; producer Cheche Alara; and engineer/mixer Reto Peter.
2025-27 Board of Trustees
Here is the full list of the Recording Academy’s 2025-27 board of trustees in alphabetical order by first name. An asterisk signifies those who were elected or re-elected this year. Others are midterm.
Dr. Alex E. Chávez*
Armand Hutton*
Ashley Shabankareh
Avery*Sunshine*
Carl Nappa*
Cheche Alara
Dr. Chelsey Green
Dani Deahl
Dave Gross
Divinity Roxx*
Donn Thompson Morelli “Donn T”*
EJ Gaines
Evan Bogart
Fletcher Foster
HENNY
Jennifer Blakeman
Jessica Thompson
Jonathan Yip*
Julia Michels*
Julio Bagué*
Ken Shepherd
Lachi*
Ledisi*
Maggie Rose*
Marcella Araica*
Maria Egan
Matt Maher*
Ms. Meka Nism
Mike Knobloch
Nikisha Bailey
Reto Peter*
Sara Gazarek
Sue Ennis*
Tamara Wellons
Tami LaTrell*
Tammy Hurt
Taylor Hanson
Teresa LaBarbera*
Terry Jones
Torae Carr
Wayna*
This story originally appeared on Billboard
