Holocaust Museum Houston Names New Executive Director
Holocaust Museum Houston has named Dr. Kelly J. Zúñiga, CFRE, currently executive director of the Houston Community College Foundation, to take charge as its new executive director, the Museum has announced.
Zúñiga, who has served as executive director of the foundation since 2006, will assume her new duties at the Museum on July 17.
Museum Chair Mark Mucasey said that “our Museum has made great strides in its 17 years. However, we have big visions for a future of expanded outreach, an enlarged and updated physical plant, and enhanced programming that reaches all corners of our community. Our Board and our staff felt overwhelmingly that Dr. Zuniga is just that visionary executive who will get us there, and we welcome her to our family.”
Mucasey said Zúñiga was selected from a field of more than 150 candidates to head one of the leading Holocaust institutions in the world, with more than 1.7 million visitors since its opening in 1996.
Zúñiga said, “I am very excited and pleased to serve as HMH’s next executive director, leading the Museum to develop new relationships and community partnerships.”
Zúñiga has more than 22 years of experience in building, managing, and leading fundraising teams that focus on the successful completion of capital and endowment campaigns. She is experienced in presidential and board of director partnerships, internal and external communications and growing relationship-based, donor-driven philanthropy.
In her community endeavors, she serves as a leader and mentor in fundraising and as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the Rice University Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies.
Earlier this year, she was named as one of “Houston’s Most Influential Women of 2012” by Houston Woman magazine.
She earned her Ed.D. in administration and supervision from the University of Houston, where her doctoral research focused on online donor giving behavior. In addition, she earned her Master of Business Administration from the University of San Diego and a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from San Diego State University.
At the Houston Community College Foundation, she has overseen fundraising efforts and the awarding of grants that benefit Houston Community College. A frequent presenter at fundraising conferences, Zúñiga is a member of the board of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and is membership chair for the Greater Houston Partnership’s Executive Women’s Partnership Committee. She is a previous board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Houston Chapter and the West Houston Center for Science and Engineering Advisory Board. She served as president of the Planning Giving Council of Houston in 2000.
Her previous experience includes key fundraising positions with the Houston Zoo, Inc.; the University of Houston System; Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut; Claremont University Center and Graduate School in Claremont, California; and Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles.
Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors’ legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, the Museum teaches the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy.
Holocaust Museum Houston’s Morgan Family Center is free and open to the public and is located in Houston’s Museum District at 5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX 77004. For more information about the Museum, call 713-942-8000 or visitwww.hmh.org.