Meet Our Leaders | Science Museum of Minnesota

Meet Our Leaders

Alison Brown - President and CEO

Alison Brown

Alison Brown joined the Science Museum of Minnesota as its 16th president in May 2016.

Brown comes to the Science Museum from the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco’s largest cultural attraction, where she served as the Chief of Staff, and before that, Chief Financial Officer. She oversaw infrastructure and operations, ensuring that the Academy’s resources were managed wisely and that the organization remained healthy and forward-looking. As a member of the Academy’s senior leadership team, Brown helped lead the organization through the transition to a temporary facility, an extensive rebuilding project, the return to a new building in Golden Gate Park, and the launch of a spectacular new facility. After re-opening, she facilitated the creation of a shared vision for staff that led to one of the highest rated museum visitor experiences nationally, an engaging public floor, and expanded resources for education and science.

Before joining the Academy in 1999, Brown served as Chief Financial Officer of StayWell, a $100 million sales patient education publishing firm previously owned by Times Mirror. She also spent nine years with the Blood Centers of the Pacific, based in San Francisco, as Treasurer and Director of Finance & Information Systems during the period when the AIDS crisis hit blood centers around the world. Before that, she was a Senior Consultant with Arthur Andersen & Co.

Brown is an active member of the Board of Trustees for Pomona College, Claremont Colleges. She received her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where her area of concentration was nonprofit and government organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, with an emphasis in mathematics, from Pomona College.

Mike Day - Senior Vice President, Museum Enterprises

Mike Day

Mike Day oversees the programming, sales, and promotion for museum visitor experiences and is responsible for earned income operations of the Science Museum of Minnesota. He has enjoyed a 30-year career in public program administration and museums. After earning a finance degree from the University of Illinois, Day was awarded a New York State Arts Council grant to study museum management in Rochester, New York. He went on to the Cleveland Board of Education, from which he was recruited to Saint Paul to join the Science Museum.

Mike Day was responsible for bringing the Body Worlds exhibition to the museum in the summer of 2006, A Day in Pompeii in 2007, Titanic in 2009, The Dead Sea Scrolls in 2010, and King Tut in 2011. He has traveled the world as an executive producer of giant screen films for the museum’s William L. McKnight-3M Omnitheater. He and his film teams spent seven years chasing volcanoes around the Pacific Basin for Ring of Fire and journeyed to the shores of Lake Tanganyika to produce a giant screen film featuring the life’s work of Dr. Jane Goodall. Most recently he was the executive producer for National Parks Adventure, which made its debut in the William L. McKnight-3M Omnitheater on March 4, 2016.

Day currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the Giant Dome Theater Consortium, the consortium of seven U.S. museums housing IMAX Dome theaters. He is a past president of the Giant Screen Cinema Association, a former board member of the Association of Midwest Museums, and a former treasurer and executive committee member of the Saint Paul Convention and Visitor Authority.

Paul Martin - Senior Vice President, Science Learning

Paul Martin

Paul Martin has a long, varied, and esteemed career in museum programming. Known nationally as an innovator, he has worked with over 100 museums and science centers to create new opportunities for interactive and immersive learning.

As Senior Vice President of Science Learning, Martin is part of the Science Museum’s Senior Management Team and oversees its Science Learning Division. The division’s seven groups—Community Engagement, Life Long Learning, Exhibitions, Production, Science, Public Programs, and Teacher Professional Development—focus on engaging individuals, families, educators, and policy makers in interactive learning. This learning takes place at the museum’s riverfront facility in Saint Paul, at the Lee and Rose Warner Nature Center in Marine-on-St. Croix, and at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station. Also critical to the Science Museum’s signature brand of learning are partnerships with community-based organizations, schools, museums and science centers, and educational, research, and professional organizations. All help the Science Museum reach audiences locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Martin leads a staff of over 300 youth, educators, scientists, and exhibit professionals. The staff’s work towards fulfilling the Science Museum’s mission both at home and around the world is recognized industry-wide. Under Martin’s leadership, collaborations and partnerships have flourished, making the Science Museum of Minnesota the leading museum-based exhibit and program development, design, production, and delivery operation in the country.

Prior to his tenure at the Science Museum of Minnesota, Martin held leadership positions with Museum Content Builders Inc., The Field Museum, Jim Henson Productions, and the Minnesota Historical Society.

Juliette Francis - Vice President, Human Resources

Juliette Francis

Juliette Francis joined the Science Museum’s senior leadership team in November 2013. She brings experience in employee relations, workforce planning, compensation and benefit management, and training and development to her position overseeing the museum’s service to both its paid staff and its expansive volunteer corps.

Juliette comes to the Science Museum from College Possible, a national nonprofit headquartered in Saint Paul that provides low-income students with an intensive curriculum of coaching and support to help them earn college admission and college degrees. As Director of Human Resources and Operations, Francis oversaw the organization’s HR, new site operations, and technology functions. Her professional experience also includes human resources work at Girls Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys and Fury Motors.

Juliette has a bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Development from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. She has been actively involved in the Saint Paul Winter Carnival for more than 13 years, and she sits on the Business Programs Advisory Board at Inver Hills Community College.

Mimi Daly Larson - Vice President, Mission Advancement

Mimi Daly Larson

As Vice President of Mission Advancement, Mimi Daly Larson heads the team that engages companies, foundations, community partners, government partners, and donors in opportunities to support and advance the Science Museum’s mission to inspire learning, inform policy, and improve lives. She joined the senior leadership team in November 2016.

Larson brings 25 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and marketing to the Science Museum. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of Marketing, Development & Public Policy at Scholarship America, where she created an organization-wide brand strategy and marketing plan. She also created a new strategic development plan, a corporate partnership program, and launched the organization’s public policy agenda and advocacy program. Before that, Larson was the Vice President of Marketing at the Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Larson is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) with a bachelor’s degree from Macalester College and a mini-MBA in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the University of Saint Thomas. She has served on the boards of the Catholic Community Foundation and Visitation School and is a graduate of the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Saint Paul program.

Duane Kocik - Vice President, Finance and Administration

Duane Kocik

Duane Kocik, a 35-year Science Museum of Minnesota veteran, has been Vice President of Finance and Administration since 1985, with responsibility for overseeing the development of the museum’s annual and long-term financial plans. Under Kocik’s leadership, the Science Museum has had an excess of revenue over expenditures for the last 28 consecutive fiscal years.

As Vice President of Finance and Administration, Kocik manages the departments that provide support service for the Science Museum’s operations, including finance and accounting, maintenance, legal services, insurance, and investments. He also staffs the Finance, Investment, and Audit Committees of the Board of Trustees.

In addition to his role on the Science Museum’s senior management team, Kocik has served on the board of the Institute for Minnesota Archeology and as a volunteer for the Fairway Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Regents for St. John’s Preparatory School in Collegeville, Minnesota.
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