Marie Beam Announced as Discovery Museum CEO, effective Jan 1, 2024
ACTON, MA – Discovery Museum’s Board of Directors has announced the selection of Marie Brais Beam as Discovery Museum’s next Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2024. Beam currently serves as the Museum’s Chief Development Officer, a position she has held since 2013.
“Over her nearly ten years of leadership as Chief Development Officer, Marie has demonstrated a deep commitment to and passion for our work and has been a remarkably effective advocate of all that the Museum values. She brings a vision for our future that builds upon Discovery Museum’s many strengths with an eye towards the issues affecting kids and families and how best to support them,” said board president Harry Hollenberg. “In searching for our next CEO, the Board spent more than six months on a thoughtful, detailed, competitive, and rigorous selection process, resulting in our enthusiastic choice of Marie to lead Discovery Museum. We are very confident in Marie’s ability to position Discovery Museum for continued leadership both in our community and more broadly in the museum field nation-wide.”
Beam will replace outgoing CEO Neil H. Gordon, who is retiring at the end of 2023 after 14 years leading the Museum. Gordon led the beloved 41-year-old institution through transformative growth, an impactful physical expansion, and tremendous advancement in the depth, breadth, and reach of playful learning experiences serving kids and families throughout Massachusetts.
“In a time when we need more curious and creative problem solvers, Discovery Museum is helping thousands of kids each year to explore their world confidently and recognize their own abilities to make a difference,” said Beam. “It is an honor to be chosen to lead this wonderful organization and its extraordinary staff in its fifth decade of service to the children and families of our region.”
Beam oversaw the $8.8M, five-year Campaign for the Discovery Museum, the institution’s first campaign in 30 years, which funded a complete campus overhaul to create the Discovery Woods outdoor nature playscape and treehouse and a new and expanded museum facility, both of which are fully accessible to people with disabilities and learning differences. She spearheaded fundraising through the COVID-19 pandemic that flipped the Museum’s traditional earned and contributed revenue shares, helping to ensure that all staff were retained during a 4.5-month closure and the Museum could reopen with a month of free admission for all. Beam also conducted the $900K Bridge to the Future Campaign to fund the Museum’s conversion to 100% on-site solar electricity. In addition to campaign fundraising, Beam’s leadership of the Development function effected a nearly 250% increase in Annual Fund giving, which increased from $286K prior to her arrival to more than $1M in 2022.
Before joining Discovery Museum, Beam served as Director of Advancement at Fay School in Southborough, MA, and prior to that held several roles in development at Simmons College in Boston and St. Sebastian’s School in Needham. She is currently a Board Member for the MetroWest Nonprofit Network (MWNN) and has served as an instructor in the MWNN/Framingham State University Certificate in Nonprofit Management program. In 2021, she was nominated by her peers and awarded a New England Museum Association Excellence Award. She earned a B.S./B.A. with Distinction from Simmons College.
************
About Discovery Museum
Discovery Museum is a hands-on museum that blends science, nature, and play, inspiring families to explore and learn together. The museum and its Discovery Woods accessible outdoor nature playscape and 550sf treehouse blend the best of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) learning on a beautiful 4.5-acre campus abutting 180 acres of conservation land in Acton, MA, about 20 miles west of Boston. Originally founded in 1982 and expanded to two museums in 1987, the museum reopened in a single, 16,000sf accessible building after a complete renovation and expansion in early 2018. Hands-on, open-ended exhibits developed by professional educators inspire curiosity and exploration, providing a fun and engaging experience for children and adults to discover their world together. Serving families and schools from towns throughout the region, the Museum is devoted to informal education that enhances classroom learning. Discovery Museum is committed to accessibility and is a proud recipient of the 2017 Massachusetts Commonwealth Award, the only winner in the Access category, and a 2018 LEAD® Community Asset Award from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Discovery Museum is a community-supported non-profit organization. Discovery Museum programming is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.