Kudos to these Affiliates on their recent accomplishments! Do you have kudos to share? Please send potential entries to Aaron Glavas, GlavasC@si.edu.

FUNDING

The Cosmosphere (Hutchinson, KS) has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce as part of the State Park Revitalization and Investment in Notable Tourism (SPRINT) program. SPRINT seeks to revitalize the tourism sector in Kansas in the wake of the pandemic by funding the development and improvement of tourism-focused businesses and tourism agencies throughout the state of Kansas. The funds will be used to complete projects that will improve the overall quality of the visitor’s experience at the Cosmosphere.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

The Board of Directors of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), recognized the Frazier History Museum (Louisville, KY) for their leadership and excellence within the museum field. With the acknowledgment that diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) work is necessarily ongoing and iterative, this recognition highlights important and noteworthy work that is driving impact and making a difference both internally through museum workplace culture, programs, and policies and externally through engagement with museum audiences and communities.

National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, CO) scientist Richard Rotunno has been named a new member of the National Academy of Sciences, a distinguished honor given to those who have achieved excellence in research. Rotunno is a senior scientist in the Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology (MMM) laboratory at NCAR, where he studies severe weather such as tornadoes, supercell thunderstorms, squall lines, hurricanes, and more. University Corporation for Atomspheric Research manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research on behalf of the National Science Foundation.

LEADERSHIP

Dr. Noelle Trent announced she is leaving the National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN) to assume the role of President and CEO of the Museum of African American History in Boston & Nantucket. In her absence, Ryan Jones, Associate Curator, will serve as Interim Director for the department. The Museum will conduct a national search for the permanent position.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced Denise Young has been named the next director of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (Raleigh, NC). Young is currently the executive director of the Bell Museum (Saint Paul, MN). Denise will join the North Carolina museum in June.