(California Academy of Sciences)
Guests have so much to do at the Academy: aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and living roof. This is wonderful from a guest experience perspective but how do we, as an institution, make sure guests leave understanding our conservation/sustainability messages? We thread our messages throughout the museum creating opportunities to reinforce and build on the prior knowledge of our guests. This hasn't always been easy to do or measure, but our education scores continue to rise as we link our sometimes disparate guest experiences together.
Amy Miller is the Director of Public Programs at the California Academy of Sciences where she oversees programming for the 1.5 million visitors that visit the museum annually. This includes scheduled programs (i.e. penguin feeding), scheduled family programs designed for members, the volunteer docent program, outside partners and special education events, and special venues (i.e. Early Explorers Cove) and programs related to those spaces. Amy has nearly 20 years of experience in informal science education and volunteer management (Pacific Science Center, Smithsonian's National Zoo). Amy holds a MEd from Marymount University and a BS from the University of Washington. Amy is a member of the AZA's Conservation Education Committee and partners regionally to develop professional development opportunities for AZA member institutions.