The Boston Children’s Museum announced this week that Carole Charnow will retire as president and chief executive.
Charnow, who became president in 2010, will retire in August after a 16-year career, the second-longest of any president in the museum’s history, the museum said. She will retain a president emeritus title after stepping down.
The museum, located in the Seaport, contains many science and humanities exhibits designed to promote education for children while remaining fun.
The museum said that under Charnow’s leadership, it raised over $75 million. retired two-thirds of its debt, and doubled its endowment.
Charnow was also behind several new museum programs, including Explore It Summer Camp, Grown-Ups Museum events, and the annual Wonder Ball fundraiser.
In 2024, Charnow led a collaboration with the City of Boston and other local museums to found the Boston Family Days initiative, a program that allows free attendance on the first and second Sundays of each month for local students, pre-K to grade 12.
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In 2019, Charnow helped establish Martin’s Park, located next to the museum, with former mayor Martin Walsh and the Martin Richard Foundation. The foundation is named after an 8-year-old victim of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
In 2013, the BCM was awarded the National medal for Museum and Library Service, the highest honor awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Charnow is a recipient of the Emerson College Distinguished Alumni Award, the Berklee College Urban Service Award, the New England Museum Association Excellence Award, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Award. In December, she is to receive the Norman B. Leventhal Distinguished Leadership Award by infrastructure organization A Better City.
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Ryan Yau can be reached at ryan.yau@globe.com.