In December 2009, Ka’iu Kimura was named Interim Director of ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She is the first alumnus of the ASTC Diversity & Leadership Development Fellows program to be named as executive director or CEO of an ASTC-member institution. Kimura has been involved with the center since initial planning began in 2001 as an exhibit content researcher, leading the development of Hawaiian content for exhibits and helping define the mission of the center. After the center’s opening in 2006, Kimura served as experience coordinator, designing and implementing educational programs and engaging the community in development of programs that met the needs of Hawaiian youth. In 2007, she was named associate director as part of the center’s commitment to developing native leadership and its larger sustainability plan.

Kimura was selected as an ASTC Diversity & Leadership Development Fellow in 2006, attending her first ASTC annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The ASTC Fellows experience was her first exposure to the larger science center field and the ASTC community. She notes that the program provided her the “opportunity to meet other Fellows who experienced similar challenges in their own institutions, understand informal science education on a higher level, and network with professionals in the community outside of educational programs and exhibit designers.” Kimura also acknowledges that the program provided guidance on how to be engaged in the conference, ask questions, network effectively, allowing her to enjoy a more nuanced conference experience.

Participation in the ASTC Fellows program opened the doors to other professional development opportunities, including the CAISE Fellows program. Participation in the 2008 program helped her overcome geographic isolation; network with diverse professionals from different informal science education sectors; and gave her insight into the priorities of organizations funding informal science education.

Reflecting on how these experiences have shaped her as a science center leader, Kimura notes, “Imiloa’s mission is to bring together culture in science to benefit all parts of its community, especially to engage youth as the next generation of STEM leaders. Coming to ASTC and CAISE has helped me understand what’s going on in the larger community, and the opportunities for contributions from ‘Imiloa on bringing together culture and science for the benefit of all communities.”

On February 23, 2010, Anne-Imelda M. Radice, the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) director, and Susan Sher, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, presented the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries, at a Washington, D.C., ceremony. The National Medal is awarded each year to five museums and five libraries that have demonstrated a long-term commitment to public service through innovative programs and community partnerships. Three ASTC members were among the honorees—Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), Tampa, Florida; and Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), Ohio.

The ceremony highlighted how the museums’ programs have benefited individual community members. Brittani Brown participated in the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s YouthALIVE! after-school program from the sixth through eighth grades, became a museum volunteer in high school, and was later promoted to a paid position as a youth puppeteer in the YouthALIVE! Puppet Troupe. Faith Anne Brown is a graduate of CMC’s youth leadership program, where she facilitated interactive programs for families at CMC’s Duke Energy Children’s museum. She recently completed her undergraduate degree with honors in chemistry at Howard University. At age 14, Vivian McIlrath joined MOSI’s YES! Team, a leadership development/mentorship program for teens facing multiple risk factors, and her program scholarship stipend helped to financially support her family. She went on to gradauate from the University of South Florida and was the first scholarship recipient of the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year Award. Today, McIlrath heads the YES! Team program, helping to share with students the same opportunities she was once offered.

In addition to the National Medal and a $10,000 award, each Medal recipient will have the option of a three-day visit by StoryCorps, an independent, nonprofit, oral history project that records conversations with community members that can be shared through a free CD and are preserved at the Library of Congress.

About the images: Anne-Imelda M. Radice, IMLS director, and Susan Sher, First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, present the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service to Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati Museum Center, and MOSI. Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, top, left to right: Sher; Brittani Brown, community member; Jane Werner, museum director; Jennifer Broadhurst, museum board member; Radice. Cincinnati Museum Center, center, left to right: Sher; Douglass W. McDonald, museum director; Elizabeth Pierce, museum vice president of marketing and communications; Radice. MOSI, bottom, left to right: Sher; Judith Lombana, museum vice president; Vivian McIlrath, head of the museum’s YES! Team program; Wit Ostrenko, museum director; Maruchi Azorin Blanco, board member; Radice. Photos by Earl Zubkoff

On February 20, over 5,000 visitors flocked to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., for Discover Engineering Family Day. The celebration featured dozens of interactive activities, from building gumdrop geodomes to experimenting with natural and nano-manufactured materials that show properties like water resistance. The activities were provided by local engineering chapters, national organizations, and museums, including the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISENet) and the National Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C. The event also included a presentation by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Anna Lee Fisher.

Discover Engineering Family Day marked the end of this year’s Engineers Week, a global annual celebration presented by the National Engineers Week Foundation to raise public understanding and appreciation of engineers’ contributions to society. Other events included Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and the finals for the Future City Competition.

About the image: The National Children’s Museum, Washington, D.C.,  presents Builder Bill and the Bewildering Bucket at Discover Engineering Family Day. Bill (also known as Matt Baldoni) shows kids how to construct a museum with pulleys, levers, and all sorts of machines. Photo by Christine Ruffo

On January 12–13, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), St. Paul, participated in a two-day symposium, “A New National Dialogue on Race,” in Washington, D.C. The event, co-sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Congressional Black Caucus, consisted of four panels of experts from academia, civil rights organizations, and museums, designed to look at race through the lenses of science, history, and lived experience. In the opening panel, Johnetta Cole, executive director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, urged leaders to “define their diversity vision, not focusing on what they’re against, but articulating what they’re for.”

Portions of RACE: Are We So Different?, a traveling exhibition developed by SMM in collaboration with AAA, were on display during the symposium and provided a basis for discussions. The exhibition tells the stories of race from biological, cultural, and historical points of view. Eric Jolly, president of SMM, also moderated a panel on “Racial Disparities: Are U.S. Policies Addressing or Entrenching Disadvantage?”

About the image: SMM staff members brought RACE: Are We So Different? to Capitol Hill for “A New National Dialogue on Race.” Photo by Christine Ruffo

On September 26, the Museum of Science, Boston, was one of hundreds of sites in 40 countries that participated in the Danish Board of Technology’s World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews). Each site hosted a group of citizens who spent the day responding to questions about global warming and outlining what they expect global leaders to do about it at this year’s Conference of the Parties to the UN’s Framework on Climate Change (COP15).

To make sure that the results from WWViews reach both the broader public and decision-makers, the Museum of Science planned two follow-up events. The first brought participants back the day after WWViews to share their experience with the public alongside scientists and government officials who helped interpret the day’s results.

The second event will be a joint transatlantic conference with La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, the only other science center to participate in WWViews. Science center staff will be joined by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists and French and American policy experts, including the COP 15 negotiator for France and the Director of the US Climate Change Science Program Office.

The museums’ involvement in WWViews illustrates the central role science centers can play in addressing global issues. “There are a lot of people working in public engagement who have considered global engagement on this scale, but this is proof that it can happen,” said David Sittenfeld, project manager at the Museum of Science. “ASTC and the science center field have a part to play, creating the chance for results to reach more people and to have more power when presented to policy makers.”

About the image: Museum of Science, Boston, was one of hundreds of host sites for WWViews. Photo by David Rabkin, Museum of Science