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#DTJax Awards: Maria Hane, Downtown Achievement Award

Left to Right: Jake Gordon, Maria Hane, Numa Saisselin

The Downtown Achievement Award recognizes an individual or organization for a significant body of work that reinforces Downtown as the premier center for arts, dining, retail, entertainment, business and urban living in Northeast Florida. Maria Hane, a appropriate and humble advocate for Downtown Jacksonville, is this years award winner.

Maria Hane has dedicated for than 25 years of her life working in both nonprofit and public service. Those 25 years included 17 in museum leadership, and 11 of those as the President of the Museum of Science & History. Maria paved the way for much improvement through increasing the operating budget by nearly 50%. On top of the budget increase, Maria also led a strategic growth plan to build a new center for science, innovation and culture in Downtown Jacksonville. During this endeavor, Maria secured $25 million in foundational support for the project. Prior to MOSH, Maria served as Deputy Director of Operations at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens and as Director of Written Communications for Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney

Currently, Maria is a member of Leadership Florida Cornerstone Class of 2020 and active in Leadership Jacksonville (Class of 2002). Maria is immediate past chair of the Visit Jacksonville Board and also served on the boards of the Nonprofit Center of North East Florida and Florida Association of Museums. Maria is also a founding member of Cultural Fusion which is a collaborative network of arts and cultural organizations in Jacksonville.

Thank you, Maria for your service and deep love for our city and everything within it. Congratulations!

Learn more about the #DTJax Awards here.

Downtown Vision Jacksonville Awards 2020 from Birdman Filmworks on Vimeo.