CLEVELAND — "A boss lady is somebody who boldly chooses her own direction. She gets stuff done, she often strays from the conventional path and blazes her own trail. She often works towards a higher purpose outside of her own personal success." - Maggie Sullivan, author of "Boss Ladies of CLE"
At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, it’s a time of transformation, and President and CEO Sonia Winner is leading the charge.
"We've been around for 100 years, but we always need to reinvent ourselves," she told 3News anchor Sara Shookman in a recent interview. "What better place for kids to understand nature and to understand their role in the world, then at a natural history museum where they're really part of the story?"
The museum broke ground last June on a $150 million dollar Centennial Project to be completed in December 2024.
Here, they're building new spaces - but also a more engaging way to tell the story of scientific discovery. All coming in the midst of a pandemic that Sonia says, has us all wanting to learn more about science.
"If we can get kids to understand there's so much more than dinosaurs and to love about nature and science - for me, that will have been mission accomplished."
But when asked what excites her most about the renovation, Winner doesn't hesitate.
"I want people to have fun is the most important thing."
The Bowling Green grad and her husband, a Cleveland native, chose to raise their family here.
A lawyer by training, she spent more than a decade in key leadership roles in Academia - working in fundraising for both Case Western Reserve University here in Cleveland, and Columbia University in New York.
She came back to the museum in 2017 as its Chief Advancement officer before being named President & CEO in 2018.
Her roots here at the museum are more than just professional.
"I want everyone love the museum as much as my son did," she said. "My son learned to walk at the museum. And so as a young mom, I would come here on snowy Saturday mornings because I'd say, what do you wanna do? And he'd say, I wanna go to the dinosaur museum."
Sonia was born in the Philippines at Clark Air Force Base and moved frequently with her military family - her parents instilling a love for travel at a young age.
That love of exploring new places endures - she's headed to Prague soon with girlfriends.
"I would advise anyone who is in a job of responsibility to keep your girlfriends. It's very important, very, very important," she said with a smile. "You have to always be able to have somebody that you can call at three o'clock in the morning."
Her leadership style is to offer hope, tell the truth, and surround herself with those who do what she can’t.
She keeps a card on on her desk that reads: "The only job you start at the top is digging a hole."
"That's my kind of motto to people who think, 'I'm not qualified. I don't have the experience.'" she said. "You know, there's no one who is a leader who has just gotten there...I truly believe that, uh, most places in life are meritocracies. So it's really important to just work hard and that work will be rewarded."
More Boss Ladies of CLE:
- Boss Ladies of CLE: Rev. Courtney Clayton Jenkins on navigating uncertainty during the pandemic
- Boss Ladies: Margaret Mitchell taking her leadership to new heights with the YWCA
- Boss Ladies of CLE: Vice President and Chief Curator at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Nwaka Onwusa
- Boss Ladies of CLE: Emily Roggenburk and her fashion empire