February 10, 2004
Executive Director to Leave Post
Allison Slavick, Executive Director of
the Cable Natural History Museum has announced she will be
leaving the Museum at the end of May. Ronald G. Anderson, Chairman
of the Museum Board of Directors stated, "Allison has served as Executive Director for 15
years and is personally responsible for building the museum into
a successful regional resource for nature, serving thousands
of people every year. She will be missed." Ms. Slavick will
join the private sector in the field of information architecture.
During her tenure, Ms. Slavick gained regional,
state and nation-wide recognition for the Museum. Her leadership
brought about an expansion of the Museum’s building in Cable, acquisition of additional
property and an endowment to support the Museum. She established
the Museum’s popular Junior Naturalists programs and an
extensive series of public programs and exhibitions. Other initiatives
have included internships for college students, a farmers’ market
for the town of Cable, partnerships with other agencies and organizations,
and the listing of Forest Lodge Library in Cable on the State
and National Historic Registers.
Ms. Slavick has brought in more than $1.25
million in grants to the Museum, including support from the
Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board,
the Wisconsin National and Community Service Board, and many
state, corporate and private foundations. A major initiative
has been the incorporation of national science education standards
with the Museum’s
outreach programs, for which Ms. Slavick secured $425,000 from
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest
private philanthropy. In 2001, the Museum was recognized with
a National Leadership Award from the Institute of Museum and
Library Services. In 2002, Wisconsin Trails magazine honored
the Museum as the "Most Ambitious Little Museum with a Big
Agenda."
Previously, Ms. Slavick was employed at the National Museum
of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, DC
and at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, as a plant taxonomist.
She attended Eastern Michigan University, Michigan Technological
University and Michigan State University, where she was an instructor
at the Lyman Briggs School, a residential learning community
devoted to studying the natural sciences and their impact on
society. She is the author of many science publications and her
graduate research, the Flora of Isle Royale National Park, was
published in 1987 as the first complete survey of the island
since 1933. She has served on the boards of the Wisconsin Federation
of Museums, Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua, the Sigurd Olson
Environmental Institute and the Forest Lodge Advisory Council.
Additionally, she has advised the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Wisconsin
Environmental Education Board on science, education and museum
proposals. She has been an invited speaker to the Great Lakes
Environmental Institute and numerous regional organizations.
Anderson said the Museum’s Board
of Directors would immediately begin a national search effort
to recruit a new Executive Director. He thanked Ms. Slavick
for her numerous contributions to the Museum and for her efforts
to assist in an orderly transition. |
