Glazer Children’s Museum CEO leaves, interim leader named

By Veronica Brezina-Smith  – Reporter, Tampa Bay Business Journal

Oct 3, 2018, 6:46pm

The Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa will have a new top executive.

Jennifer Stancil, the museum’s president and CEO, has left, sources told Tampa Bay Business Journal. The museum’s contact information for its staff no longer lists Stancil, but has COO Kristen Nieves listed as interim CEO.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman confirmed that Stancil’s last day at the museum was Sept. 28. Murman said she couldn’t disclose further details, so the circumstances of her departure are unclear.

The museum has not yet responded to requests for information despite numerous attempts to reach museum executives through its marketing department. A call to Nieves Wednesday has not yet been returned.

Stancil served as president and CEO since 2015, she replaced Al Najjar, who ran the museum for eight years but left in December 2014 to become president and CEO at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia in Charleston. Stancil had previously served as the executive director of education at WQED Multimedia, the PBS affiliate in Pittsburgh. She also held positions with the Carnegie Science Center, McWayne Science Center and Exploris, which is now known as the Marbles Children’s Museum.

Attempts to reach Stancil directly for comment are ongoing.

Stancil’s total compensation at the museum was $174,997 and the museum’s revenue was $3,248,666 as of Sept. 20, 2017, according to museum’s most recent form 990, which nonprofits use to report financials to the IRS.

In 2016, the museum had a $3.14 million budget.

The 53,000-square-foot Tampa museum was named as the 2017 Nonprofit of the Year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal — inspiring the “imagination generation” though creative applications of science and math in ways that will appeal to children.

Under Stancil’s leadership, the museum introduced SMALLab, which stands for Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab. Glazer Children’s Museum was the first museum in the world to incorporate this motion capture lab into its space. She also helped revamp the museum’s internal financial system and software.

Today, the museum is home to 170 interactive exhibits and sees 210,000 annual visitors.