Business

Former Smithsonian Exec Tapped To Lead Adler Planetarium, And She Already Knows Her Way Around Museum Campus

After a six-month search, Adler Planetarium has tapped Elizabeth Babcock as its next president and CEO, and she’s already more than familiar with Chicago’s museum campus.

An accomplished executive, Babcock has decades of experience at institutions very much like the Adler, including a position earlier in her career at the Field Museum.

Most recently, she served as the founding director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum — a post she was appointed to in 2024 — where fundraising has been a key component of her work.

“Elizabeth is a non-profit leader of national distinction,” Nancy Gerrie, chair of the Adler’s Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “We are confident her expertise and vision will profoundly shape the Adler’s future.”

Prior to the Smithsonian, Babcock was president and CEO of Forever Balboa, the city of San Diego’s private partner stewarding the 1,200-acre Balboa Park — a campus encompassing 15 museums, various gardens and the San Diego Zoo, among other institutions. Approximately 14 million people visit the park annually.

At Forever Balboa, she oversaw several capital improvement projects, including a multimillion-dollar campaign to restore the park’s Botanical Building and Gardens.

Elizabeth Babcock, new president and CEO of Adler Planetarium. (Courtesy Adler Planetarium)

Babcock’s resume also includes key leadership roles at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which includes an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum, among other attractions focused on science education.

In addition to her time at the Field, Babcock’s Chicago ties extend even deeper: She earned bachelor’s degrees in music education and psychology from Northwestern University. She later went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology from Indiana University.

Babcock said she was honored to join the Adler.

“This is an extraordinary moment to lead an historic institution, one that inspires us with daily discoveries about the cosmos and the universe we inhabit together,” she said in a statement. “I aim to build upon the Adler’s exceptional record in space science education, community engagement, and collaboration as we prepare to celebrate our centennial in 2030, and beyond.”

Audris Wong will continue to serve as interim CEO until Babcock’s arrival in early October, at which point Wong will return to her position as vice president of finance and administration at the planetarium.

Michelle Larson, Adler’s previous president and CEO, stepped down in February after more than a decade on the job.

Adler Planetarium opened in 1930 — dedicated as a “classroom under the heavens” — and owns bragging rights as the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.

The planetarium has, in recent years, placed less emphasis on its physical location on Chicago’s museum campus, growing its digital presence and expanding programming into the city’s neighborhoods.

In spring 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Adler laid off 120 employees.

It was one of the city’s last major cultural institutions to fully reopen post-pandemic, having been closed for nearly two years.

Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]

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