Press
The New York Times – The Children’s Museum of Manhattan Appoints Nonprofit Veteran as Leader
10/13/2022
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Dava Schub, a strategic fund-raiser and community organizer, will lead the institution in its transition to a new home.
Rachel Sherman | Oct. 13, 2022
The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, where young visitors since 1973 have explored culture and global citizenry through exhibitions on subjects like Islam or healthy bodies, will appoint Dava Schub as its next chief executive and director, the museum announced on Wednesday. She succeeds Aileen Hefferren, who had held the job since 2020.
Schub, who now serves as the chief executive of the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, D.C., previously helmed the vision and direction of the Marlene Meyerson J.C.C. Manhattan for more than 15 years.
“We are super excited,” Matt Messinger, the museum’s board chair, said in an interview. “She has a tremendous record of innovative programming and initiatives.”
Messinger said in an interview that Schub, whom he called a “strategic thinker and fund-raiser,” would focus on advancing the museum’s mission to steward early childhood development in a joyful way, strengthening partnerships with the Department of Education, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Homeless Services in support of children and multigenerational families in need.
Schub joins the museum at a time of transition and will continue on with its plans to move from West 83rd Street to its new home in a former church on Central Park West, purchased for $45 million in 2018. The relocation, slowed by the pandemic (the new building was initially set to open at the end of 2021), will almost double the current museum’s total space. (Messinger declined to share a new opening date.)
Schub said in a statement that part of what drew her to the opportunity was “the amazing moment ahead to catapult the work of the museum to new heights as ‘the new CMOM’ comes to life.”
She will begin her tenure on Jan. 2.
