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RMSC President and CEO Kate Bennett to retire
RMSC President and CEO Kate Bennett to retire
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Rochester Museum & Science Center President and CEO Kate Bennett plans to retire following more than two decades at the helm of the East Avenue museum and planetarium.
Bennett will continue at the museum for an unspecified time to ensure a smooth transition to a new CEO. Beyond that, she will handle special fundraising projects for the staff and board of trustees.
A search committee has been established to identify and hire her successor.
“It has been my pleasure to serve as president and CEO of the Rochester Museum & Science Center,” Bennett said. “This is an amazing place. It is a cultural and educational gem for the greater Rochester community. Twenty years ago, we began to recreate our exhibitions and experiences for the public.”
Bennett noted that the museum created more than 200 hands-on exhibit experiences in partnership with the community.
“Over the past five years, we have transformed the museum to further enhance visitors’ engagement, to increase our STEM focus, and to improve our overall learning experiences,” she added. “We also have engaged in many collaborations on topics that are important to our community, including the ‘RACE: Are We So Different’ and ‘Take it Down: Organizing Against Racism’ projects.”
Under Bennett’s leadership, RMSC grew its programming to include new, hybrid exhibitions combining RMSC collections, programs, content and human interaction; frequent and varied live-animal demonstrations; one of the country’s first music-driven Tesla coil experiences including a Faraday cage; and real-time exhibitions such as Science on a Sphere.
“Kate has been a huge asset to the Museum and to the community. The board is pleased that Kate’s expertise, knowledge and talents will continue to benefit the RMSC for the foreseeable future, although in a different capacity than CEO,” said Anthony Adams Jr., RMSC board chairman.
Bennett was named an ICON Honors award winner by RBJ in 2017.
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