Building Welcoming Culture and Trust: JoAnn Newman’s Leadership Philosophy at Orlando Science Center

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspote and today’s guest is Joanne Newman. She serves as president and CEO of Orlando Science Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring science learning for everyone.

The center features hands-on exhibits and immersive educational programs, welcoming more than 660,000 visitors each year. Under Joanne’s guidance, the Science Center has nearly doubled its attendance and revenue, earned grants from NASA and the Office of Naval Research, and received multiple accolades, including two nominations for the Institute of Museum and Library Services National Medal.

Joanne joined Orlando Science Center in 2003, working in roles such as Director of Operations before becoming its CEO in 2009. Before that, she led manufacturing teams at companies like AT &T Microelectronics, and she holds degrees in industrial engineering from Purdue and Penn State, which have helped shape her approach to leadership and problem solving.

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One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your group qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, President and CEO of Orlando Science Center, Joanne Newman. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

JoAnn Newman (02:11)
course.

Anthony Codispoti (02:13)
So Joanne, what first drew you into the field of engineering?

JoAnn Newman (02:18)
Well, I really had no idea what I wanted to do. And I’m the youngest of five and my oldest brother had already graduated and he was an engineer. And he is the one that really talked to me. He’s like, you don’t know what you want to do, but you’re good at math, you’re good in science. I think you need to look at this and try it. And so I did. ⁓ Because…

You know, I’m first generation college and my family, my parents did not ⁓ graduate. And so it was really the influence of my oldest brother who is also an engineer.

Anthony Codispoti (02:56)
What type of engineering did he study?

JoAnn Newman (02:58)
He did Civil, and so I started looking at all of them. I was the industrial and sort of system side of things is the one that seemed ⁓ the most appealing to me. So I thought I would try it. And then I’m just stubborn because half the class drops out in the first year. And yeah. And I was like, no. Now I’m going to see this through.

Anthony Codispoti (03:27)
degree.

Go ahead.

JoAnn Newman (03:28)
Yeah,

I was just going to say it just gave me that great foundation in problem solving. That’s what I think engineering degrees do for you.

Anthony Codispoti (03:37)
So degrees from both Penn State and Purdue. When you watch college football, where’s your allegiance?

JoAnn Newman (03:43)
⁓ State is my heart. Penn State is my heart for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (03:47)
Now, how about basketball? you flip over to Purdue because they’ve got a stronger program?

JoAnn Newman (03:51)
No, I don’t. I’m not really a big college basketball fan, but I’m, you know, professional sports, ⁓ professional football. know, Pittsburgh is a football town and I grew up outside of Pittsburgh, so I’m a big Steelers fan as well.

Anthony Codispoti (03:55)
Okay.

That’s fun. Okay, so you held a number of technical engineering and later managerial roles at a variety of different semiconductor companies. Talk to us about what that path was like and was it more difficult being a woman in that field?

JoAnn Newman (04:24)
Yeah, it definitely was back in the day. You know, I remember when I graduated, so I got my degree, I got the job with AT &T and I was like, I’m all set here. This is going to be great. But I remember walking in on day one and back then I walked into a room, it was a big bullpen with 40 desks, no cubicle walls or anything, just 40 desks. And this was before computers were on every desk.

And I was the only woman of the 40. And not only that, you know, I’m a 22 year old kid and these people all seemed really old. They were probably in their forties. But, but yeah, now looking back, I’m like, yeah, long for those forties, right? But, ⁓ so it was, I mean, the main feeling was just, what am I doing here? I don’t belong. I don’t fit into this.

Anthony Codispoti (05:05)
That is really old.

JoAnn Newman (05:22)
and having to sort of work my way through that. And I don’t think they quite knew what to do with me either, to be honest. At first it was, here, read a lot of these manuals. And I was like, this doesn’t seem right. But eventually I connected with ⁓ some other folks there and found work that I really was interested in and that I started to enjoy. And then just building upon that is kind of how it worked.

Anthony Codispoti (05:50)
So when they hired you, they didn’t have a specific role or task for you in mind? They were just trying to fill a seat?

JoAnn Newman (05:55)
Well,

really I was part of a hiring. There was a plan to build a new facility and the location hadn’t been ⁓ announced yet, but it was either going to be in Florida, which is where it ended up to be, or in North Carolina. And I was supposed to be in Pennsylvania in Allentown for about a year and then transfer with a new facility. So I was hired.

really for the new place. And I think that caused a little bit of the uncertainty that kind of went with the initial phase.

Anthony Codispoti (06:34)
Cause that

role wasn’t quite ready for you yet.

JoAnn Newman (06:38)
Exactly. And by the way, that one year turned into four years. So it was carving out the role ⁓ and finding what really changed it for me. There were some Bell Labs folks who worked with our facility and I connected with them and they were doing really interesting work. And I just was able to sort of be a part of that.

Anthony Codispoti (07:02)
What was that early work that sort of lit the fire and had you feel a purpose and connection there?

JoAnn Newman (07:04)
⁓

It was simulation. It was modeling and simulation. And so what we were doing was modeling the clean room, the wafer fab room, ⁓ to make sure that we were as efficient as we could be and that we had all of our processes down in the right way. So that’s what kind of got me started.

Anthony Codispoti (07:29)
And so when you say modeling, you didn’t have a computer on your desk, so what did it look like back then?

JoAnn Newman (07:34)
Well, we had to run and then I actually did end up getting a computer because I started to get into that work. But I remember we had to run the software overnight in order to get any results. ⁓ So it was way, way back. Yeah. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (07:50)
Was there a hand crank on the side of this giant computer closet thing?

So as you think about sort of the arc of your career before you found your way to Orlando Science Center, which of those stops do you consider to be most formidable for?

JoAnn Newman (08:08)
⁓ I think that initial fitting in within AT &T, and it was really high tech, was a high tech business, it semiconductor manufacturing. And by the way, that’s all one career. We just changed names and I had, my whole career was with AT &T and we just kept changing the name of the company. So it was continuous. ⁓

Once I got to Orlando, it was exciting and fun. We built the whole new facility. I was there when we opened it, kind of came up through the ranks there. And then I was also there when we shut it down. So it was a full cycle there. ⁓ Really, we just could not be competitive in semiconductor manufacturing. And you see some of the

Anthony Codispoti (08:55)
Why was it shut down?

JoAnn Newman (09:05)
push of that today with incentives and the CHIPS Act and things like that. ⁓ It’s a tough business to be competitive in. And I think, you you need more of a campus ⁓ to absorb all the costs that it takes. You know, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment in the clean rooms. And ⁓ we were also a union shop, which meant our pay was higher.

And in the end, we really just couldn’t compete and everything kind of went offshore. And so we were shutting it down. And that was when I had had a 20-year career there, but I didn’t want to leave Orlando at that point in time.

Anthony Codispoti (09:48)
What was it about Orlando that had captured your heart?

JoAnn Newman (09:51)
Well, the first thing was my family was here, right? You know, my husband had a nice job and we had two children and we were settled. I mean, Orlando is a great town though. think everybody thinks theme parks and there’s a big push about, you know, the other side of Orlando, the hidden Orlando, which is, ⁓ which is beautiful. And, you know, the weather and

all the access to beaches and parks and everything that you can do. It’s pretty amazing.

Anthony Codispoti (10:29)
So did want to leave Orlando. Was there a thought about trying to stay within a similar industry? Because it seems like a pretty big shift to join the Science Center there.

JoAnn Newman (10:40)
Yeah, it was. All my colleagues thought I was crazy, Anthony, for sure. ⁓ To stay in the industry, I would have had to leave the state for sure. And a lot, lot of people I know, that’s what everybody was doing. They were leaving the state, finding other places because it really, you know, I had built a career there. So it was, it was important. But I felt like I had had this sort of corporate career and I was heads down and I

really wanted to do something where I was more involved with the community and where I felt like I was giving back ⁓ more. And I always cared about education and I cared about girls in education because of that, the experiences I had as a woman in the field when there really weren’t many. And there still aren’t very many today, to be honest, but there really, was an unusual situation back then.

And so I really just sort of put it out there, like maybe something with education, something with children. I wasn’t sure. And then I always tell people it was kind of a fluke that I ended up at the Orlando Science Center. And it turned out that a guy that had run our facility at AT &T, ⁓ he went out to the University of Central Florida and became the Dean of the College of Science.

And the Orlando Science Center had just hired a new CEO who had been Dean of the College of Physics. So they got talking and the new guy said, you know, I really need somebody who knows how to run an operation and who knows certain things. And this guy said, I know somebody who I think would be perfect for you. And that’s kind of how it happened.

Anthony Codispoti (12:35)
So part of the reason why you made this shift is you wanted to help, you wanted to help the community. And I heard you specifically say you wanted to help girls get more involved in science because, you know, the own your own path and how kind of lonely it must have felt, you know, walking into that bull pit and there’s 40 people and you’re the only woman and you’re young. And I think there’s this natural human tendency to sort of look at where we are today and then look in the past and be like,

Oh man, things were so backwards then, but we’re enlightened and we’ve made so much progress now. But I’m hearing you say that here we sit today in 2025 and there still aren’t that many women in the field of engineering. Why do you think that is?

JoAnn Newman (13:23)
It’s a great question, Anthony. I think it comes down to fit and culture in many cases. And sometimes there is a culture, especially in high tech companies, where women just aren’t going to feel comfortable and just don’t feel welcomed. And then there’s so many other things. It’s family.

you know, think still, you know, women as the prime caregiver of a family, I think that’s still very true today. And so it’s hard, it’s hard to juggle all of that as well. And the cost of childcare is extremely high. So there’s so many things that go into it, but I do think a part of it starts with what is the culture like?

And it’s something that I’ve taken with me. If you ask me today, like one of the most important roles I have as the CEO of the Orlando Science Center is creating a welcoming, respectful culture so that people can bring all of who they are to the table. And I think that’s where innovation lies, right? Where people are free and the ideas are flowing and we…

We listen to each other, we need each other, but there’s this creative spirit that flows and you’re not, and it’s okay. We’re brainstorming, we’re throwing out ideas. They may be crazy, but let’s go to town and feel good about that.

Anthony Codispoti (15:08)
I’m curious, somebody in your role, the CEO of a science center, do you think it’s necessary for that person to have a really strong science and technical background like you do?

JoAnn Newman (15:20)
I do not, but I know it was important when they ⁓ hired me. think people felt it was important, but I personally do not believe that you have to have a strong, ⁓ I don’t think you have to be a scientist. I don’t think you have to be an engineer. I think you have to be a strong leader. ⁓ These are businesses after all. They’re nonprofit businesses, but ⁓ if you, you know, no,

no money, no mission, we say. And it’s really true. You have to run these places to a certain degree as a business. They are, we are a, we’re, you know, we’re a $21 million business when you look at our last audited financials. So it’s a big operation. And, but the wonderful part of it is you do have this beating heart of a mission and you have this

this purpose that feels so good to really inspire ⁓ science learning and to support that and how do we support our community. ⁓ So there’s so many positive aspects to it.

Anthony Codispoti (16:34)
So when you first came in as director and VP of operations, what were you tasked with?

JoAnn Newman (16:42)
the, think one of the biggest things that I brought in was I’m a very process driven person. And that does come from the education and from the AT &T training and culture. And it, it was, things were a mess here. They were messy and it was the, ⁓ you know, the building it.

We still call it the new building today, but this building opened in 1997 and there was great fanfare. And then it took this dive. It started the nose dive. And so when I came in, it was in chaos and that original group of people had pretty much all exited and a new group of people were trying to sort of resurrect this thing. and yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (17:32)
Sorry, let me interrupt you right there. I just wanna

understand what the root of the chaos was.

JoAnn Newman (17:36)
Yeah. Well, I mean, the reason I think it went downhill, moved from, we’re in a beautiful cultural park here in Orlando called Lockhaven Park. And in this park, we have the Museum of Art, we have Repertory Theater, we have ⁓ Orlando Family Stage, which is a children’s theater. There’s another ⁓ American Art Museum. So it’s a really nice sort of cultural park.

At the time, the Science Center was in a building that was about 34,000 square feet that now houses the Shakespeare Theater. But they were busy and packed and they wanted a new space. They moved into this new building, which was built and designed. It’s over 200,000 square feet. So it was a huge move. And part of the business plan was that tourists would come and support the business model.

It took us years to get to the right attendance levels to support a building of this size. And so, it just, it wasn’t working. You know, there’s always, when you open up a new place, it’s the big thing in town. Everybody’s going to come out, but people would come once, maybe twice, and they just didn’t feel there was enough to come back to. And so, ⁓ all of that was sort of happening. So the staff had been…

reduced severely. was severely ⁓ reduced staff. ⁓ It was somewhat chaotic. People were trying to do the right thing, but there wasn’t a real strong direction of where should we be going, what should we be focused on. So it was just trying to fight fires every day, it felt like.

Anthony Codispoti (19:26)
And at some point, let’s see, were there three years, five years before you moved into the CEO role? Six years, okay. Thinking about that transition from what we’ll call industry ⁓ into the Science Center, what was the biggest thing that surprised you?

JoAnn Newman (19:33)
Yeah, six years.

Mmm.

It, ⁓

biggest thing that surprised me? Well, I think one thing that surprised me was how transferable I think a lot of the skills were.

Anthony Codispoti (20:04)
So you didn’t feel like a fish out of water.

JoAnn Newman (20:06)
No, I never felt that way at all.

Anthony Codispoti (20:08)
seems like quite

the opposite. was like, can take all this structure that I learned over here at AT &T and I can layer that in here.

JoAnn Newman (20:13)
And

exactly that is how it felt. And I do remember we have this, we have a parking garage on one side of the road and then a pedestrian bridge that you walk across to get into the building of the Science Center. And it’s beautiful. And I remember walking across that bridge and music was playing and I was like, this is, this is amazing. I mean, I had been in, you know, the trenches there at AT &T for many years and

⁓ It just felt great. It really felt like a wonderful change for me.

Anthony Codispoti (20:49)
Yeah. Speaking of changes, what changes did you make as CEO to nearly double attendance and revenue?

JoAnn Newman (20:56)
Yeah. Well, the real focus for us was ⁓ quality. And it all starts with the quality of the experiences and the services you provide. You can’t be all things to all people. ⁓ And we had to just sort of start, you know, narrow that down a little bit and start. And we started with exhibits because that is the main thing. People come to you for this great, exciting exhibit experience.

And we didn’t have any money. It was not in good financial shape at all. But we would start even, sometimes we would just move the exhibits around or some that were really not good, that just were not good exhibits, remove them, get them off the floor. How do we build this back up? We kind of started one prong of that, just what does the experience feel like? And we started immediately, even

When I, before I was ⁓ CEO, I came in as the director and then I was the COO. And we implemented a, we call it the Review of Quality Service, ROQS. So we just call it ROQS for short. But we implemented that many years ago and it started with asking people, you know, it’s about listening to your community.

is a big, big part of this. can’t be some just, I do this because I like it or it’s convenient, or the team was like, well, we could figure this out, I, like that’s, we needed to listen a little bit more to our community. And that’s what the Review of Quality Service is all about, surveying and getting as much feedback from our community and visitors as we could, and really listening to that feedback and making appropriate changes. And we just started grinding that out, like.

sort of a couple things at a time. And then there’s that exhibit experience. And then there was the whole other side of how are we getting out into the community and how are we supporting our community? And that came a little bit later, but it’s such an important component of the work that we do and that I think all science museums and science centers do. And it’s really, how am I out there supporting?

the community and how do I get to those folks who might never step through our doors?

Anthony Codispoti (23:26)
So the first part of that that you talked about, I was sort of expecting an answer of we made this massive change. We closed off a wing. We completely redid it. We had these brand new shiny exhibits come in. You’re like, we didn’t have the money for that. So it was just like lots of these incremental changes looking for loose change in the couch cushions. So how can we take this experience from a two to a two and a half to a

JoAnn Newman (23:36)
Ha ha ha ha.

We had no money, yeah.

Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (23:54)
to a three and just sort of incrementally turn the dials. That’s kind of how it unfolded, huh?

JoAnn Newman (24:00)
It really is. And then, you know, when you think about it, nobody is going to set the quality bar for you. You have to set it. So we set it really high. Like if something didn’t meet that bar, get it out of, get it out of the purview of the public. And if our guys in the shop could do something with it and make it better, great. We’ll start on that. If not, it’s done. And what else can we do to, to bring in new content and

And we, you know, it was not a great situation. Donors felt, I think donors felt honestly a little let down. ⁓ They may have given some money, but as things got worse and worse, that money may have been used to pay the utility bill instead of whatever they really had hoped that it should be used for or designated what it should be used for. so.

There was a lot of rebuilding of trust in the community as well, because there are so many generous people here who are willing to give, who give so much today. ⁓ But you have to earn, earn the trust. And I remember early meetings too, Anthony, where I would go and, and very early just become the new CEO. And they were like, why are you here? The only time the Science Center comes is

when you need something, you want something from me. So what is it you want? And I was like, I’m the new person. And I’m sorry that it’s been that way. And all I can tell you is it won’t be that way in the future. And it was.

Anthony Codispoti (25:41)
And so what

are the other reasons to connect with donors then?

JoAnn Newman (25:47)
What do you mean? ⁓ well, it’s all about your relationship with a donor. It isn’t just, hi, how are you? Give me your money. And there, you know, I think there are so many generous donors here. And people who have the capacity to give want to, in a lot of cases, leave a legacy. They want to do something that’s meaningful. They want to know they have had an impact.

And that takes a lot of, that takes a strong relationship and building trust and really understanding and listening to your donor. What is it that you want? What are you trying to achieve? And what do you want to get out of this? And when it’s the right fit and we say, well, look, we can do this thing over here. And I think that’s going to be something you’re going to be so proud of and love and want to be a part of. That’s when it’s magical.

Anthony Codispoti (26:46)
Cause it sort of struck me that you have this chicken egg problem, right? You, need the money to make the place better, but the donors are kind of jaded because they’ve been given money for a while and they haven’t seen it get better. They’ve seen it decline. So it sounds to me and tell me if I’m right, Joanne, that what you did is you really focused on building that trust, building that relationship while also painting a bigger vision of here’s what we have in mind. Here’s what we can do. And

Yeah, we can put your name on that. So you know, kind of continue your legacy. Am I connecting the dots correctly here?

JoAnn Newman (27:21)
Yeah, absolutely.

we had to start to change the way we operated so that we could become healthier. We still, to this day, our earned revenue is probably 65 % of total revenue. So those people coming through the door and buying tickets and ⁓ fee for service programs are really critical to managing ⁓ the Science Center.

we had to build that business back up. And it starts with what will people want to come and see? And some of that, you know, we cobbled together some money, like at one point traveling, we always bring in what we call traveling exhibits. So it just helps you have something new and fresh. And you have one hall pretty much dedicated to something that comes in. So you get three of those a year, primarily.

and it always allows you to have something to announce. So we tried to focus on what could we bring in that would bring back traveling exhibits because we were starting to learn what people didn’t like through our review of quality service through the ROQS program and starting to make changes there. And the building was in disrepair too, Anthony. mean, it’s a big building and it costs a lot of money to support this place.

And it just, there was just some digging out that had to be done. And we sort of started to do that. You know, you’re doing a lot of things at the same time, but there was a group focused on the internal building. There were some of us focused on meeting with supporters and constituents and donors on that side and starting to talk about a vision. it took, but it took a couple of years before we could actually launch the unlock science campaign, which is our.

major capital fundraising campaign that we’ve been very successful with. But we had to prepare more and we had to continue that sort of incremental change that helped us start to build back some revenue and make sure the business was right side up.

Anthony Codispoti (29:35)
What’s different about the Unlock Science campaign versus what you were doing in the early days to get donor funds?

JoAnn Newman (29:41)
⁓ It’s just a bigger, bolder vision. It was the big, bold vision that you sort of talked about. We put it down on paper. We got some advice from ⁓ fundraising professionals at that point, and we certainly needed it. And one of the things I remember is, you know, they said…

go for the big vision. What is that big vision? And we had some great ideas, and I think we had a good, we kind of understood enough at that point about what the community needed and desired and where we felt we could really meet those needs and desires that were in our wheelhouse. And so we laid that all out and,

And it’s been a multi, you we knew it was going to be multi-year, multi-project, sort of a multi-phased approach where we did, and we had done our research and like the first project we pitched was providing a space for young children in our community. There still to this day is not another children’s museum in Orlando. We fill the need of both the Science Center and the younger children, the children’s museum aspect.

and we knew we had to knock that out of the park. So that was our very first project. That was the first $5 million. We actually had to reconfigure our lobby a little bit and fill in a space, but we were able to put in an 11,000 square foot area designed for children ages seven and younger. And it was game changing. As soon as we did that, there was such a demand and a need. And we knew that from listening, from some of the research.

And the Orlando Science Center had a smaller area for young children. It just wasn’t, you know, it needed to be better and it needed to be great. And that was the first project we implemented.

Anthony Codispoti (31:42)
Is it unusual to have the science center for the older kids and for the children in the same facility?

JoAnn Newman (31:49)
⁓ I see more and more people doing it today, but it was a little bit unusual back then. But I’ve seen a lot of examples of it today. And some of it depends on if there’s already a great children’s museum near you or in your area, you’re probably not going to go in that direction.

Anthony Codispoti (32:10)
So I live in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve got what I think is a great science center called COSI, but I’ve not been to many others around the country. So I don’t have points of comparison. I’ve got two boys, they’re nine and 11. And when they were several years younger, we had an annual pass. We went there all the time, we’d play areas, you know, things for them to kind of do and climb on and experience. ⁓ And now we’ve just lost interest in it.

JoAnn Newman (32:15)
Cosi, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (32:37)
Like, you know, it just didn’t seem like there was anything for them once they, I think, kind of aged out. Is this a common experience? Am I missing things that may be happening that, you know, kind of go beyond the young kid experience?

JoAnn Newman (32:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that it’s such a common theme. It’s something we wrestle with today because we did that younger children’s area and we did it really well. There are times where somebody will walk in through the doors and just if, if all you see are younger children in the museum and you’re an adult couple, you may feel I’m in the wrong spot. And we are, we are really trying to combat that because

We, for an example, like we run nights that are for adults only. ⁓ Well, they were 21 and up, we just changed it to 18 and up. And you can purchase alcoholic beverages, but they are adults only, no children. And we have the same exact exhibits that we have during the day, and the adults have a ball. They have a great time. And I think there’s something to this.

People don’t think you’re learning when you’re playing, and that is not true. Learning through play, I think our brains like to learn. It’s probably one of the best ways to learn is to do it through play and interaction and hands-on. And one of the things we talk a lot about is having sort of a multi-layered ⁓ exhibit experience. So you have this interactive, it’s fun, it’s engaging, and then allow the adult

you know, maybe there’s a QR code and they can go and dive a little bit deeper into either the science behind that or some more information behind that so that we satisfy, we’re trying to satisfy all these ⁓ layers of adult, teens, you know, elementary aged kids and then young children.

Anthony Codispoti (34:43)
Why is this so important for the community? mean, they’ve got school, they’ve got college if they want to pursue it. What’s the larger purpose here?

JoAnn Newman (34:51)
Yeah.

This is ⁓ informal science learning. And it is so important because I think science has a bad reputation. Kids think it’s boring, it’s hard, they don’t like it, or they don’t like math. You either love math or hate math, it appears to me. And this is a way to bring ⁓

our youth in and show them that this stuff really can be fun. And we lead with that. You have to show that science can be fun. And then as we go a little deeper into it, one of the things we try to do is let these kids know you can do this. You belong in this field. If you like this, you’re going to love this. Starting to show career paths, starting to show some of those deeper layers. It’s,

It’s really, really important because we do have a shortage still of science and STEM workers. And these jobs are absolutely critical. mean, these are really important for so many aspects, for breakthroughs in science, who’s going to find that next cure for cancer, who’s going to go to Mars, who’s going to do all these things. It’s our youth who are going to figure these things out.

all the problems that we face, the most complex problems that we face, I feel like the skill set we’re trying to teach today is the skill set you need to solve those problems. And we do, we try to get to those underlying skills. I mean, it’s critical thinking and how do you solve problems? And how do you, know, even today making a decision about your health or science, you’ve got to follow the evidence. And we talk a lot about that.

at our science center, trying to instill that process of science. It’s really important and critical, I think, to all of us.

Anthony Codispoti (36:55)
So if I were to sum up what I think I just heard, it’s not only education, but probably the bigger thing is igniting a spark.

JoAnn Newman (37:02)
Exactly. Yeah. I mean, our mission is inspire science learning for all. it’s that inspiration and curiosity is so important. We want to feed the curious minds. Keep asking those questions. I worry because you can now type in a question and get an answer, right, to anything. And my fear is kids and,

Adults too are just going to think, well, all the answers are all the questions have been asked, all the answers are out there. And so you stop asking questions, you stop questioning the answers. We can’t go there. We really need to dive in and stay curious and ask those questions and do your research. Right? It’s really, really important.

Anthony Codispoti (37:55)
So you’re obviously referencing AI, right? We can go to any one of the models and we can ask a very complicated question. And most of the time we get a pretty accurate answer. Sometimes we don’t, it completely hallucinates or it gets important details wrong. ⁓ But how, well, I guess first, are you incorporating AI in any way into the Orlando Science Center?

JoAnn Newman (38:07)
Sometimes not.

Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (38:22)
and the exhibits the way that the public interacts right now.

JoAnn Newman (38:25)
I mean, we brought in a traveling exhibit on AI and it was very well done. And I’m glad we brought it in, in trying to help educate. I think part of our mission should be to try to help educate the public around AI. And then one of the other legs for us in AI is we’ve partnered with a national organization. It’s called Code.org.

And their mission was to make sure that every school has computer coding as an option, as a class. And it’s surprising how many don’t. But that’s sort of their mission. And as part of that, our staff has gotten trained by them. And then we go out and train teachers more in our region. And one of our…

one of our teammates got certified in teaching AI to, I think it’s middle or high school teachers. And that’s been a really wonderful thing. And actually that training has been more an online training because people from all over the country want to kind of dive in and see like, what should we be doing? How does this work? What should we be teaching our children? So I think those sort of in ways we interact with the public are

are some of the main ways that we’re looking at AI. I mean, AI is embedded in so many things that we do now. ⁓ So, you know, there are probably aspects of it in pieces of an exhibit, an exhibit component. But, you know, the way we look at technology and exhibits is, yes, we want to wow people, but that technology has to be tried and true and work every single time or you will get.

destroyed.

Anthony Codispoti (40:20)
So I’m really curious to get your perspective on this, Joanna. It’s a conversation that I’ve had a lot with friends and family. had a number of times on this show, you know, as I think about my boys, nine and 11 years old, and what I want to coach them on or expose them to that might be suitable career paths for them. You know, five years ago, everybody would have said, ⁓ computers, programming, software, get them comfortable, you know, around all of that.

And now I know people graduating with those degrees who can’t find jobs, can’t get interviews, and things are changing so fast with what AI can do. And I think some of the hype is, is overblown, right? It’s going to replace all these jobs. It’s going to replace some jobs for sure. But how do you think about this as somebody with a very strong science background and somebody who’s trying to instill, you know, this spark and in, ⁓

JoAnn Newman (41:06)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (41:17)
excitement to pursue education in STEM, how do you think about sort of justifying these two things? Like where are we going to be versus where we are now and what’s a safe career path for somebody?

JoAnn Newman (41:31)
Yeah, and it’s such a good question, Anthony, and it is difficult because things are changing so rapidly. And I think that’s why we have tried to go to that layer below, which is skill set. If you can develop these skills, then you are going to be successful. And when the time comes, then you’re going to decide which of these specific careers I want to go into, right?

And they are basic skills because to your point, these jobs, if you say, want to be this today, that might not even exist by the time your children are ready to get into college. It’s changing so fast and so rapidly. But I think the underlying skills are truly important. And we talk about critical thinking, problem solving, ⁓ teamwork and collaboration. Nobody’s going to do this stuff.

in a cubicle by themselves anymore. It really does require a team effort. ⁓ And I think, though, if there is this interest in science and STEM, it’s making sure that they get into those courses now, you know, as they start to be available. Because if you get to be

you know, late middle school or even early high school and you all of a sudden say, yeah, I want, I do want some of this math or science. It’s almost too late. You know, we, we talk about inspiring kids as young as we can get them at, the science center. And we have, I told you, we have that early childhood space for kids seven and younger. We also run our own preschool here. And that is for, um,

three and four year olds and the early fives, if they’re not in kindergarten just yet, who are potty trained. But we have an amazing preschool program that it, talk about critical thinking and what these kids are exposed to. It’s unbelievable. It’s amazing.

Anthony Codispoti (43:41)
So hearing you say that, you know, once they hit junior high, high school, if they haven’t had exposure to these things, that it’s almost too late. Not something parents want to hear, but can you kind of expand on that a little bit?

JoAnn Newman (43:54)
Well, just, you know, more and more what I’m hearing, like if I talk to some of the university folks, they’re saying even kids who have maybe taken the right math courses all along and they’ve been exposed to these, when they get to university, they’re still having to run maybe a remedial kind of a class to really get these kids where they need to be to start to launch into.

⁓ certain STEM careers. And so, yeah, I mean, I don’t want to say that to be negative or make it sound like it is impossible. But you, if your children show any interest in this, and taking them to a science center is a great way to figure that out, and to try to ⁓ see if they’re excited about this stuff, then you can start to ⁓ nudge them.

And then there are other, there will be other resources in your community too. Like if they are interested in, ⁓ you know, like there are summer camps that will be run by our universities or by other places that are a higher level than maybe the summer camp that I would run, that we run here at the Science Center. Like you can start to find, there are a lot of resources out there that I think you could find for your kids. And

let them try it out and see if they like it. But do that, I’d start that young. the conversations I think should start young.

Anthony Codispoti (45:29)
So I’m hearing summer camps, a good way to get some exposure to STEM. What are some other things, maybe during the school year, if it’s not a specific course that’s being offered at their school?

JoAnn Newman (45:40)
There are clubs. A lot of schools will have some kind of after-school programs that exist and clubs that exist. I think those are all really good ways to do a little bit of a deeper dive.

Anthony Codispoti (45:55)
So I want to make sure we give proper voice to this. sort of talked around this a bit and all the changes and the upgrades that you’ve made. But paint a picture for us. What is the customer experience like today coming into the Orlando Science Center?

JoAnn Newman (46:09)
Yeah. Well, we have four floors of interactive exhibits and it people who hadn’t who probably haven’t been here even in a few years are sort of amazed at the changes. We’ve we’ve raised ⁓ just about 48 million dollars through that unlock science campaign. And we have two projects that are in in the works that are funded through those funds. But all the rest of the stuff has already been done.

And so that includes like that new children’s area. built a virtual reality flight lab here. did the one we premiered about a year and a half ago is all about conservation and the environment. It’s called life. And we have a, ⁓ an enclosed rainforest. have a couple of monkeys and a sloth and it’s a free flight aviary that you walk, you know, you’re walking into their environment.

There’s an ocean habitat, there’s the swamp, sort of a Florida-centric space. So it just, it looks very, very different and looks so much better, I think. And then we care so much about the visitor experience. So, you you should be welcomed when you come up to the front. And you, one of the things that I think does differentiate us

differentiate us a little bit is we have a team, programs team. So we have tried to have people out on the floor. Sometimes you go to centers and you don’t encounter any staff that are really out on the floor. And those folks are there to do sometimes shows, sometimes pop-up demos to help you have the best experience you can with these exhibits that you’re encountering.

Anthony Codispoti (48:01)
And I’ve got a note here to ask about the Dr. Phillips synodome renovation. Can you tell us about that one?

JoAnn Newman (48:09)
Yes.

Okay, that one, that’s one that’s underway right now. It’s under construction. I think we were one of the last big theaters, and this is an eight story dome theater, about 300 seats. And so it’s one of the larger theaters in the country. I think we were one of the last to still run film. So we have these big platters and it’s kind of an art. I mean, in some ways it’s a little bit of a, it’s a real era change to go from threading that

film up through one big projector that came out. We’re moving into 8K digital laser projection. And so instead of one big projector that filled the dome, we now will have eight digital projectors, an all new sound system, all new seats. And then we’re replacing what is the projection surface, the screen of the dome. And it’s like 400 panels that

come out and what’s going in is it’s called a nano seam material because you don’t want to see any seams when you put those panels in and it’s one of the best projection surfaces that exists so it is going to be spectacular Anthony we’re so excited about it and it’s going to allow us to get back into planetarium shows and there’s a

know, planetarium shows are the coolest things and the library of content that exists today is amazing. Like we could, we could take you into our dome, give you, give me your birth date and we could put up the night sky from the date you were born. And we could take you anywhere in the solar system to any planet, black holes, whatever. And our thought is we’re going to,

We’ll have some what they call canned planetarium shows, but primarily we’re trying to have our staff, that programs team, narrate and take you on this journey. So they will be driving the show, if you will, and taking people through the universe.

Anthony Codispoti (50:15)
Where does the content come from? How does that get cataloged?

JoAnn Newman (50:18)
⁓ There are some major companies that have created these libraries. And then there’s also what they call user group content. So some of the larger planetariums will create their creation houses as well as displaying for their visitors. And they will put stuff together. You know, some of the… ⁓

The James Webb images, if you’ve seen some of those, there’s a show that’s out there that we’re looking at getting that shows you all the James Webb images, which are gorgeous. And, you know, in 8K digital laser, it’s massive, filling the dome. And then, but our team is gonna make sense of that for you too. They’re beautiful images, but when you have somebody who has some knowledge about what you’re looking at and kind of takes you on that journey, it’s…

It’s amazing.

Anthony Codispoti (51:13)
When is this gonna open? Reopen.

JoAnn Newman (51:16)
should reopen in March.

Anthony Codispoti (51:18)
Okay. March, 2026. So just a few months away from the recording date here. Yeah. You guys have accomplished so much in a relatively short period of time in terms of turning this place around. Obviously, you know, your vision, the work that you’ve put in is making a huge difference, but it’s not just you, right, Joanne? Like there’s a great team underneath you. How do you think about building that team? Whether we’re talking about

JoAnn Newman (51:20)
That’s right. It’ll be here before we know it, yes.

for

Anthony Codispoti (51:47)
recruiting, hiring, retaining, training, what’s kind of your philosophy there?

JoAnn Newman (51:52)
Yeah. Again, you know, I feel like I’m talking about skill sets a lot, but it’s true. look at, ⁓ you know, we compete for talent just like everybody else does. And, you know, as a nonprofit, we’re not going to be competitive with ⁓ corporate pay. ⁓ You know, we can’t match an AT &T pay. ⁓ So, but I think

people today, a lot of young people especially, are looking for mission and looking for doing something where they feel they’re giving back and they feel they’re real part of their community and that they have this sense of purpose. And we can give that to people in a huge way. And then,

we the way we look at folks like we really have identified what skill set makes somebody successful in this finance position or in this marketing position or as a program or presenter on the floor or whatever you know area it may be and then we’ll give people a shot you know they might not have had five years of experience doing this specific job

But they’ve had some experience and they have a skill set and then we feel they’re a good fit. You’ve got to find the right fit. And if we can see those things starting to align, we will hire people. And then you know pretty quickly if they love it the way they think they are and if we love them the way we would hope we would.

Anthony Codispoti (53:30)
Do you have a magic question that you like to pose in an interview that kind of helps to reveal if they’re a good fit or not?

JoAnn Newman (53:38)
don’t think there is a magic question. But I don’t sit in on many of the interviews anymore either. I have to ask HR if they have any magic questions, Anthony. not that I’m aware of. I think it is trying to get a sense of somebody. And we will sometimes like, I know when we hired ⁓ exhibit design folks, we’ll ask them to, we might give them a prompt and ask them to.

create something or give us a sample of their work. So we’ll dive into it depending on what the specific role is.

Anthony Codispoti (54:18)
Well, speaking of magic questions, I have one for you, Joanne. This tends to be my favorite one, because we end up getting some really great answers. I would love to explore a serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life, whether it’s something personal or professional, and how you got through it what you learned coming through the other side of it.

JoAnn Newman (54:37)
Yeah. Well, you know, one thing that comes to mind related to the Science Center is ⁓ shortly after I took over as the CEO, I think I mentioned the maintenance of the building had been deferred. So the building was not in the best shape. And the HVAC system in particular had just been band-aided and band-aided band-aided.

And here we’re coming into summer in Orlando and the HVAC system just failed. And I will never forget that because we had people coming in, we had fans everywhere, we were handing out bottles of water and then the press showed up. And I’m this brand new CEO and they’re like, hey, what’s happening here? I see these fans of water. And we had been struggling with it for years.

⁓ So we were running, we ran on that edge and we, you know, it failed and we fell off the cliff. But it did give us the opportunity to talk about the dire need and where we were. And we went out and got help. And I remember a couple of things happened after that. One, there had been a grant that my predecessor

had gotten from our county. We live in Orange County, Florida. And it was designated to do some type of an exhibit. And so I had to go back to them and say, look, I really want to do this exhibit, but nobody’s going to come if we don’t have HVAC. Can we repurpose that and use it toward HVAC? And they allowed us to do that. Yeah. we had the city of Orlando came in.

And we got a, I think we got a block grant and then they gave us a loan for the remainder. And one important thing that happened from that loan was they said, look, basically as you’re paying us back, we’re going to start putting some money aside for a long-term like maintenance reserve because that’s the discipline that’s needed. And it was so desperately needed. And that started, ⁓

that started a maintenance reserve that they held onto at first. They didn’t, I don’t think the trust was strong enough at that point to let us have it, but they held onto it at first. And then eventually what we’ve done is we still have this discipline today of we put a certain amount of money, like probably 350,000 annually, we put into our maintenance reserve. We probably have about a million and a half dollars in that reserve.

and we have 20 years of projects planned out. So we go out 20 years and we show, so I know in 10 years I need a new roof, it’s not gonna be a surprise. I know what the lifespan of all this equipment is that we use of the facility. We replace carpeting or flooring on this cycle. And so it’s all laid out and it’s what allows us to sleep at night because…

That is an experience you don’t want to go through having no AC in Florida.

Anthony Codispoti (58:04)
And the process that you’re talking about, having to talk to the donors, having to get loans and grants, that’s not something that happens in 24 hours. Like how long was it before the AC was replaced, repaired, whatever the situation was?

JoAnn Newman (58:19)
Yeah, well, I think what happened was we might have been able to buy like another compressor that band-aided it for a period of time, but it probably was a year, I’d say, before we were into the project of a whole new replacement, which was absolutely what was needed. It just, you just couldn’t band-aid this thing anymore.

Anthony Codispoti (58:43)
that compressor or whatever the piece, the component was that you were able to replace bought you time in between.

JoAnn Newman (58:48)
It bought

us some additional time.

Anthony Codispoti (58:51)
And you didn’t hide from what was going on when the press shows up and they start putting microphones in your face. Yeah. I bet you did.

JoAnn Newman (58:57)
I wanted to, Anthony. Trust

me, I wanted to. there was no, you couldn’t. We had to be transparent. And that’s tough situation because we didn’t want to air all the situation out in public. You’re afraid if people knew that the situation was as dire as it was that they’d be assuming your doors are closing and all of that. ⁓

It, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (59:27)
So what did you share at the time? What words

were you saying?

JoAnn Newman (59:31)
⁓ Well, it was obvious that HVAC was just fried. And so that’s what we focused on. That was the immediate, very large problem. We didn’t talk about the other deferred building maintenance at that time. ⁓ We talked about that. And our message was, look, we have plans to do more and to bring newer exhibits.

improve the quality of the offerings. But we have to start with the building and you have to have air conditioning.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:09)
So I’m curious when the press first showed up, this is probably something you didn’t really have experience with, did you kind of go out there and wing it or did you have somebody available that could kind of coach you through this?

JoAnn Newman (1:00:21)
Well, have, you you asked about the team earlier. We do have a phenomenal team of people here. And so there is a guy who is still here. He’s our VP of marketing communications, Jeff Stanford. And Jeff ⁓ had a good bit of experience with the media, but the media wanted to talk to me. I was the new person and it was ⁓ Jeff and I talked briefly like,

you know, okay, what is the messaging? What kinds of things should I be saying? How should I say this? You know, I was trying to get some coaching from Jeff and there wasn’t, ⁓ I think at that point also it was like, we just have to be transparent and talk about what’s going on and talk about the help that we need ⁓ and then going out and figuring out how to get it fixed.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:18)
And what was the initial reaction from the community? Was there shock, surprise, outrage, understanding?

JoAnn Newman (1:01:25)
I think it was probably a combination of those things. I mean, I know the people who were there that day were ⁓ surprised what they were walking into. And ⁓ our relationships were not that strong. ⁓ The people who I had to go back to at that time, the county was that one grant and the city was another one. ⁓

You know, those, we have such great relationships with those folks today and they’re huge supporters of our institution. But it wasn’t like that back then. They felt somewhat betrayed, I think, as well. so the folks we had to go to, but they also didn’t want our science center to fail. I think they inherently wanted to have a good science center.

and they wanted something that they could be proud of. And so they were digging in and trying to help. And I was new, so there was maybe a little bit of grace. You’re the new person. You have a little window there. You don’t have too long, but you have a little bit of time.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:35)
What’s your superpower, Julian?

JoAnn Newman (1:02:40)
gosh, I don’t know. I think, ⁓ I think I’m good at building the culture, ⁓ of an organization. I think that’s, I just take that to heart. think there’s so many things we do as I’m very collaborative and I love working with this group of people. They are amazing. And there’s a lot we do in a collaborative mode, but

As a CEO, I think I have to model the behavior that I would like to see from our employees. And I think I have to work really hard to create a culture that is where we listen to each other, we hear each other, we’re willing to change as we listen to each other and we’re open. And we are so transparent. We’re very transparent with, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t share really with the team.

I want them to know where we are and what we’re doing. it’s, you know, maybe that’s easy to say today because it is, we’re in a great place. But it, I think I’ve learned over the years, you know, like the pandemic, wow, that was, that rocked us for sure, as it did everybody. And we were very honest and open with employees and we had to make very difficult decisions. And, but in the end, you know, we were able to,

bring everybody back, it was a short window. We took pay cuts. We did all of that. But we restored all of that as soon as we could and came back healthy and strong. it was, but it’s just being, you know, I think that’s a culture that you create, that we’re gonna be honest and open and that I want you to be who you are and I wanna have the ability to be who I am. And then some.

great things happen.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:37)
Where did that commitment to honesty and transparency come from? Was that instilled in you during your time at AT &T? Is that something that you kind of developed more once you got to the Orlando Science Center?

JoAnn Newman (1:04:54)
I think I saw examples of it in my career where

Like I always wanted to know as an employee or as that person, I always wanted to know what was really happening. I wanted to hear and I wanted people to be transparent with me. I would rather have feedback and know the good and the bad and not just hear a great shiny, paint a great shiny picture if it’s not the way it is.

So I think it comes from me wanting that. I saw examples of that working well, and I saw examples where people didn’t share and it backfired. So I think it was a combination of experience and just maybe what I desired as an employee.

Anthony Codispoti (1:05:47)
Joanne, I’ve just got one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I just want to do three quick things. First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with Joanne Newman, you can reach her on email jnewman at osc.org. So that’s J-N-E-W-Man, M-A-N.

jaynewman at osc.org and we’ll have that in the show notes for everybody. Also, as a reminder, if you want to get more employees access to benefits that won’t hurt them financially and carries a financial upside for the company, reach out to us at addbackbenefits.com. And finally, if you’ll take just a moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast app, you will hold a special place in my heart forever. Thank you. So last question for you, Joanne, a year from now, you and I reconnect.

and you are celebrating a big thing. What’s that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from today?

JoAnn Newman (1:06:42)
Well, one will be celebrating the synodome will be open and thriving. I think that will be really exciting. And then we have our next big project in the works. have ⁓ on our fourth floor, we have an outdoor terrace right now. That’s a beautiful spot, but it doesn’t get used that often because of weather.

and the unpredictability of weather and rain. So we’re going to fully enclose that and create 6,000 more square feet of interior exhibit space. And we’ve landed on space science. So we are early in the process. We just sent out RFPs for design, the conceptual design portion of that exhibit. ⁓

And then we’ll move into, you know, we’ll do RFPs for the general contracting side, and then we’ll move into the full detailed exhibit design and build. And so a year from now, that process, that process will be well underway with selecting who we’re going to work with on that project and what direction we’re going to take. it’s…

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:54)
What do

you think it looks like? What’s the overall goal or purpose?

JoAnn Newman (1:07:58)
Um, I, I’m not sure. I don’t know. It’s, it’s very, very idea stage. And also that’s one of the things about doing a concept design with a firm that does this work. This is all they do. They’re so creative. I think they’re going to help us narrow down a vision and help us get that right in our heads. That’s why we were doing the concept design first.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:01)
Okay, so this is still very much idea stage.

JoAnn Newman (1:08:27)
just that piece. then even there might be some things we learn that will feed into the general contractor. yeah, so that’s super exciting. We have two big, big things on the horizon.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:40)
All right, well, Joanne Newman from the Orlando Science Center. want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

JoAnn Newman (1:08:50)
Thank you, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:52)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.