After national search, Children's Museum & Theatre names its new director

Courtesy / Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine Julie Butcher Pezzino, a nonprofit consultant, will become executive director of the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine, replacing Suzanne Olson, who is retiring.

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By Staff

The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine has named Julie Butcher Pezzino as executive director, replacing Suzanne Olson, who announced earlier this year that she would retire in July.

Selected after a nationwide search, Butcher Pezzino has worked as a consultant in nonprofit fundraising, strategic planning and communications. She previously served as executive director of Grow Pittsburgh, a charitable organization dedicated to increasing access to green space and healthy food in the Pennsylvania city’s low-income neighborhoods.

Butcher Pezzino now serves on the board of directors of the nonprofit Full Plates, Full Potential, and is an active member of the parent-teacher organization at Reiche Elementary School in Portland, where her daughter is a student.

Olson, who has led the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine for nearly 20 years, will serve as a consultant on its current $14 million capital campaign. The fundraising supports the museum’s planned relocation from 142 Free St., in downtown Portland, to the Thompson’s Point development, near the city’s transportation center.

Last November, the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine received a $250,000 grant from Bank of America Foundation for the planned construction of a new 30,000-square-foot facility on Thompson’s Point. It’s the largest grant Bank of America has ever awarded in the state of Maine and one of the largest in all of its 43 suburban markets, according to a Children’s Museum & Theatre news release at that time.

The museum expects to move in 2020 to the new facility, which will have a 100-seat theater, an interactive aquarium exhibit, and capacity to handle a projected doubling in visitors to 200,000 annually.

“I’m thrilled to be taking the helm at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine at such a monumental time in its future,” said Butcher Pezzino, who starts work July 8. “Thanks to Suzanne’s outstanding leadership, in partnership with an amazing and dedicated staff, the organization is poised for significant growth. I can’t wait to get started.”