Jennings steps down<\/p>\n
The executive director of Children\u2019s Discovery Museum of San Jose is stepping down after 17 years as head of the downtown destination.<\/p>\n
Marilee Jennings, who joined the museum in 1987 and has been its head since 2008, announced Dec. 22 that she\u2019s retiring to spend more time with her family.<\/p>\n
Jennings helped shape the museum into a nationally recognized leader in early education, family engagement and community partnership. She also helped develop programming that expanded the museum\u2019s reach to families across the Bay Area.<\/p>\n
Jennings also led the creation and growth of the museum\u2019s outdoor spaces, including Bill\u2019s Backyard: Bridge to Nature, Exploration Portal and most recently Bubbling Up, the new interactive bubble exhibit. She was also integral to fostering a relationship with Zoom that led to the creation of the Children\u2019s Discovery Museum Zoom Zone at the San Jose Mineta International Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of what we\u2019ve built together \u2013 indoors, outdoors, and in the hearts of the families we serve,\u201d Jennings said in a release.<\/p>\n
A national search for Jennings\u2019 successor is underway, and she will support the museum through its transition period.<\/p>\n
In honor of her leadership and the museum\u2019s 35th anniversary, the Marilee Jennings Future 35 Fund has been established. To donate, visit www.cdm.org\/Future35Fund.<\/a><\/p>\n Elves in training<\/p>\n Members of Brownie Troop 60125 in San Jose volunteered at the Family Giving Tree warehouse in Sunnyvale on Dec. 7, sorting, wrapping and organizing gifts and getting them ready for bagging for the nonprofit\u2019s Holiday Wish Drive. The troop also hosted a Virtual Giving Tree along with Junior Troop 60174, adopting 25 wish cards, and used cookie sale proceeds to shop for gifts. Donations to the Virtual Giving Trees can be made until 9 p.m. on Jan. 15 at\u00a0https:\/\/wishdrive.org\/girlscouttroop60125<\/a>.<\/p>\n Family Giving Tree has already collected more than 24,000 gifts this season and is working toward helping 50,000 children and families across the Bay Area, according to Evelyn Huynh, director of community resource development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jennings steps down The executive director of Children\u2019s Discovery Museum of San Jose is stepping down after 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,59700,23,88,90,89,198,200],"class_list":["post-111315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-childrens-discovery-museum","tag-local-news","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}