Michael Long Executive Director of The Great Lakes Children’s Museum You came to Traverse City from another Children’s Museum give us a brief bio to introduce yourself to our community? I’m a Naval Academy graduate who got into nonprofit in the early 1990’s. I served 5 years on the founding board of a very similar children’s museum in northern Wisconsin, then became the Executive Director in 1999. Between 2008 and 2014 I worked as an Executive Director for a non-profit membership association serving administrators in a large school district. When I saw the opening in Traverse City, I jumped at the opportunity to get back into something I have always enjoyed and have a knack for doing. Under your new direction what are you excited to accomplish at the Museum? Change – and there’s been a LOT of it in the last year, which has been mostly about accomplishing the Trustee’s very aggressive strategic plan which called for three new exhibits. We met those three and we are focused on more exhibit and new fun program changes. We are also doing other things to make sure every penny we can squeeze goes into serving kids in one way or another. What message do you hope families that visit the museum, take away? Play is much more than learning. When adults play with their children the learning experience is amplified into a desire for a life-long love of learning. You’ve been here just over a year, what has surprised you about living in Northern Michigan so far? The traffic – I expected SOME seasonal variation – but even in the “off-season” the roads are bustling with activity. What hobbies do you enjoy? Movies, music, working out, and running Do you have a specific superpower that helps being around kids all day? Nah. The only super power at work here is when adults engage in play with their children and generate those spontaneous “aha” moments. That’s what keeps me going and I think what keeps ALL the staff focused on why the Museum is crucial to the community. What is your favorite quote, you try to live by? Inch by inch, it’s a cinch What’s one thing on your bucket list? To make a bucket list. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 | BAY LIFE NORTH
27