Emily Sterling will serve as the interim CEO of Central Florida’s Holocaust Center , effective immediately, as the organization works to revamp its plans for a new museum in downtown Orlando.
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida, currently based in Maitland, made the announcement Monday.
“We are dedicated to maintaining our core principles and mission during this period of transition,” Ron Schirtzer, president of the Holocaust Center board of directors, wrote in a statement. “Emily brings to the table the skills and experience that will allow us to do that without skipping a beat. We are thrilled to welcome her to Orlando.”
Sterling is a consultant with more than 30 years’ experience working with nonprofit and social-impact organizations during executive transitions. Before establishing her advisory business , she founded and ran California-based Olive Grove Consulting, which operated nearly 20 years with a staff of 15. She also worked at global management-consulting firm A.T. Kearney (now known as Kearney) and has served on several nonprofit boards.
She joins the Holocaust Center following the departure of Talli Dippold, who departed last month to relocate to the Northeast. Dippold will join the leadership team of the Boston-based Holocaust Legacy Foundation as it prepares to open a Holocaust museum in that city in the fall of 2026.
Orlando’s planned Holocaust Museum scales back as leader departs
The Central Florida Holocaust Center announced in May it is scaling back its plans for a new museum north of downtown Orlando, in the Ivanhoe neighborhood, in part because of difficulties in raising funds. The budget for the project had grown upward of $100 million, but now the center is looking at spending closer to $60 million. About $31 million has been raised so far.
Fundraising is one of the skills highlighted on Sterling’s website , where she points out she “can help ramp up philanthropic activities, engage the next generation, or launch a new philanthropic initiative.”
Among the organizations for which she has previously consulted: Schwab Charitable; San Francisco Opera; Nature Conservancy; Jews of Color Initiative; Oakland Museum of California; Moishe House; Hillel International; Goodwill; Feeding Our Kids — Clinton Global Initiative; Opera San Jose; and the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
“The work of the Holocaust Center could not be more relevant at a time of rising antisemitism and increasing urgency to foster a just and caring community,” Sterling wrote in a statement. “It is my honor to join this important organization, and I look forward to continuing its critical mission and helping forge the path toward its next chapter.”
Meanwhile, the center has been continuing its work. Last week, 150 educators from around Florida participated in a week of discussions and programs with Holocaust experts as part of this year’s Dr. Norman M. Wall Teachers’ Institute.
High-tech partnership will catapult new Orlando museum onto world stage
Founded in 1980 by Holocaust survivor Tess Wise as a series of lectures on the Holocaust, the center opened its current museum on the campus of the Roth Family Jewish Community Center in Maitland in 1986.
The planned new facility will be called the Holocaust Museum for Hope & Humanity and feature artificial-intelligence technology that allows visitors to have face-to-face “conversations” with those who experienced the Holocaust. It will be built at the site of the former Orlando Chamber of Commerce Building on Orange Avenue, visible from I-4.
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com . Find more arts news at OrlandoSentinel.com/entertainment .
Most Popular
Comments / 0