Sarah Cole, President and CEO, Glazer Children’s Museum

August 2026 —Invest: spoke with Sarah Cole, president and CEO of the Glazer Children’s Museum, about strengthening early learning experiences, widening access, and preparing the museum for its next chapter. “We are at a generational tipping point as a children’s museum,” Cole said.

What key changes over the past year have most impacted the museum, and in what ways?

This past year has been focused on two things: improving the guest experience for families and moving a major early-childhood initiative from planning into action.

On the guest side, we opened or enhanced three permanent experiences. Let’s See, created with the Glazer Vision Foundation, uses playful activities to introduce how vision works and why eye health matters. We also launched Make Space, a design-thinking studio where families get a new hands-on creative invitation each month using repurposed materials. It has become a place where adults and children collaborate, not just kids working while adults watch.

We also refreshed our Forts experience into a cozy, whimsical environment built around building and rebuilding blanket forts. It has been a strong example of what we want the museum to feel like: creative, welcoming, and worth leaving the house for.

The second major change has been advancing a character-development project supported by a significant Lilly Endowment grant. This year we launched our first cohort program with about 15 families with infants. We are working with caregivers on how play supports brain development and early character development, while we learn alongside them. Over time, those insights will inform a future exhibit centered on care, and we are beginning the fundraising work needed to bring that vision to life.

How are you measuring or evaluating the museum’s impact on children’s development in areas like communication, creativity, and collaboration?

One of the most important things we can measure right now is caregiver confidence. We see a real gap in parents feeling comfortable with child development and school readiness expectations. In several programs, we use start-and-finish assessments that ask families how confident they feel and what they understand.

We consistently see gains. Families leave feeling more prepared to support development at home and more comfortable communicating with preschool and kindergarten teachers. We emphasize that parents are their child’s first teacher, and that everyday play and conversation are powerful tools for communication, creativity, and collaboration.

We are also sharpening our focus on kindergarten readiness because it is a major issue in Florida. Many children enter kindergarten not assessed as ready under current standards, and families feel that pressure. We serve children at multiple points, from infants through 1- to 5-year-olds and kindergartners, who participate in our camp. This summer, we are dedicating a camp classroom to look and function like a kindergarten classroom so children can practice routines, strengthen familiarity with a classroom environment, and build foundational readiness skills in a supportive setting.

Across the museum, we are increasing literacy and early-math exposure. We are not here to teach children to read, but we know that words, labels, books, and storytelling build familiarity. Simple practices matter, like labeling objects, pointing out letters, and encouraging families to talk through what they see. We do the same with early math, using everyday prompts like counting steps on a staircase or noticing numbers and patterns. Our goal is to model strategies that feel doable for caregivers, while we continue strengthening long-term evaluation tools.

How are you refining exhibits or programs based on feedback from neurodiverse families?

We are a certified autism center, and that process required us to evaluate our programs, communications, and spaces through an access lens. One result is a dedicated sensory room that is used during camp and, when camp is not in session, can be available to any family who needs a quiet reset space.

We have also expanded neuroaffirming support in our summer camp. In recent years we offered three weeks with additional specialists available. This year, all eight weeks will be neuroaffirming, with consistent support that includes access to a speech-language pathologist and a behavioral specialist. The goal is deeper, steadier support for children, and a better experience for families.

Delivering a high-quality learning experience depends on people. How is the museum attracting, developing, and retaining talent?

Like many nonprofits, we cannot always compete directly with for-profit wages, but we track the market closely and do what we can within our budget. Just as important, we invest in culture and benefits so people can build a career here without burning out.

We provide strong PTO, a 403(b) program, and benefits support, and we offer a free telehealth program for all staff, part-time and full-time, covering both physical and mental health needs. Counseling access matters in this work, and it is important for a team that is highly empathetic and includes many neurodivergent staff members.

We also focus on growth. When people leave, it is often for a bigger opportunity, and we try to support that development openly. Many employees ask for mentoring and coaching as they explore next steps, and we invest in training and professional development along the way.

We were also named a family-friendly business locally, reflecting policies like paid leave. We added paid volunteering as well, giving staff time to support community partners directly when needs arise and helping the organization stay connected to what families are experiencing outside our walls.

How is the museum deepening its engagement with community partners to expand access and impact?

Access is central to our mission. While we are a paid museum, we work hard to reduce barriers. This year, we shifted away from a small number of free days that became overcrowded and hard for working families to use. Instead, we expanded a partner-based access model.

We work with more than a dozen community organizations and provide them with ticket allotments they can distribute directly to the families they serve. That lets families visit any day of the year, at a time that works for them, without cost. We also expanded library partnerships so families can check out passes through multiple county library systems.

For families using EBT or SNAP benefits, we continue offering reduced admission and we added a membership-style option so families can use a card rather than presenting benefits documentation each visit, making the experience simpler and more dignified. We also value philanthropic partners who can respond quickly when families face disruptions, because sometimes access is about timing as much as price.

We continue providing free field trips for Title I schools and are working with the district with the goal of scaling those opportunities even further.

Looking ahead to the next two to three years, what are your key goals and priorities for the museum?

We are optimistic, but we are realistic. Funding conditions have shifted, and the competition for family time is intense. For many families, the biggest competitor is a phone and a couch, so guest experience matters more than ever. We have to stay compelling enough that families choose hands-on play over staying home.

We are at a generational tipping point as a children’s museum, and that means this is the right moment to plan and fundraise for our next chapter. Our building is about 15 years old, and we are seeing a full-circle dynamic where children who visited early on are returning as parents. We are developing plans to refresh and revitalize spaces so the museum stays relevant, accessible, and inspiring for the next generation of children in Tampa Bay.