Centerville grad chosen as acting CEO of natural history museum

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Museum of Natural History announced this week that Clevelander Sonia Winner, the museum’s chief advancement officer since January 2017, has been appointed acting CEO, effective immediately.

Winner has succeeded Evalyn Gates, who left the museum in December after seven years at the helm.

Winner, a lawyer, held key fundraising positions at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University and Columbia University in New York before returning to Cleveland last year to join the museum.

Her top goal as acting director, as she put it, will be to develop a process for reassessing the museum’s ongoing $150 million expansion and renovation, early stages of which have been completed.

The museum, which has raised $78 million for the project so far, had hoped to complete it in time for its centennial in 2020. The institution is now re-examining the timing, scope and budget for the project.

“I’m humbled, I’m actually humbled to be representing this amazing museum,” Winner said. “That is my first reaction. I’m excited about the future and the community interest in making sure the museum moves forward as we celebrate our centennial in 2020.”

A search for a new director at the museum could take six to 15 months, said Jonathon Grimm, president of the museum’s board of trustees.

The museum is forming a search committee and will hire a consultant to conduct an international search, he said.

Before joining the museum last year, Winner spent six years at Columbia, rising to the post of vice president for development. She participated in a team that raised $6.1 billion in a campaign that set an Ivy League record for a single effort of its kind in 2014.

Winner held a series of positions at CWRU between 1998 and 2011, including associate dean of the Weatherhead School of Management.

At CSU, where she worked from 1991 to 1998, she was a staff attorney and later director of the ClevelandMarshall College of law, according to her Linkedin profile.

Winner, who was born at Clark Air Force Base in Pampanga, Philippines, said she moved 14 times while growing up, before graduating from Centerville High School in western Ohio. sculpture.

The show opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 2 and will run through Feb. 25. Dutoit Gallery is open to the public on First Fridays from 6-9 p.m. and Third Sundays from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. as well as by appointment. For information for this show, contact Stefan Chinov at stefan.chinov@wright.edu.