Chief Strategic Advancement Officer at The New Children’s Museum
At Blair Search Partners, we believe meaningful leadership is rooted in the ability to bring people together around a shared purpose. Through our Project Impact series, we spotlight leaders whose work strengthens organizations, deepens community connection, and creates lasting impact far beyond the walls of the institutions they serve.
Today, we are proud to feature Rebekah Hook-Held, Chief Strategic Advancement Officer at The New Children’s Museum, whose leadership has helped support a new chapter for one of San Diego’s most beloved cultural institutions. Through strategic communications, team development, community engagement, and advancement leadership, Rebekah has helped strengthen how the museum tells its story and how families across the region experience its impact.
Meet Rebekah
Before joining The New Children’s Museum in 2023, Rebekah spent nearly a decade at The San Diego LGBT Community Center. Much of that time, she served as Chief of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement. Her work there spanned advocacy, communications, marketing, civic engagement, and shared strategic leadership, including helping the organization through COVID and a major strategic planning process.
Throughout her career, Rebekah has remained motivated by work that allows her to make a meaningful impact within the communities organizations serve. That same desire ultimately drew her to The New Children’s Museum, where she saw an opportunity to help shape a space centered on creativity, connection, and belonging for children and families across San Diego County.
Building a Team Around Purpose
Rebekah joined the museum during a period of organizational restructuring designed to strengthen and unify advancement efforts across the institution. From the beginning, much of her work centered on people and team-building.
Over the course of her first 18 months, she helped rebuild and expand the advancement team, and brought in leadership across development, marketing and communications, grants management, and database operations.
Reflecting on leadership, Rebekah shared, “One of the things I really love is organizing a group of people, helping them center their purpose, and then operationalizing.”
She also shared that the process involved was far more than hiring. It required helping teams navigate change, building trust, and creating an environment where people felt motivated to contribute new ideas and grow together.
Helping the Community See the Full Story
As the museum continued growing internally, Rebekah’s focus increasingly turned toward helping the broader community better understand the organization’s impact.
Early on, she realized that many people primarily viewed The New Children’s Museum as a fun destination or event space without fully understanding the depth of its mission and community work.
She recalled hearing people talk about loving the museum’s annual events while knowing very little about the experiences happening inside the building every day for children and families. That realization became an opportunity to reshape how the museum tells its story.
Today, much of the advancement and communications work centers on helping families, donors, and community members better understand what truly happens within the museum’s walls: children building confidence through creativity, caregivers finding connection, artists creating spaces that invite curiosity, and families making memories together.
The work also involves helping people understand that The New Children’s Museum is a nonprofit deeply connected to San Diego County, with the majority of visitors coming from the local community itself.
Creating Spaces Where Families Know They Belong
One of the things Rebekah spoke about most thoughtfully was the way families experience the museum together. Over time, she has noticed that people are not simply looking for places to take their children for an afternoon. Many families are searching for spaces where they can reconnect with one another, slow down for a few hours, unplug, and feel genuinely welcomed the moment they walk in.
That feeling often shows up in quiet, everyday moments, like grandparents bringing their granddaughter back week after week because they have found a place that feels special to their family; or, children moving freely between the paint studio, clay patio, and drop-in art spaces. For many, the museum becomes part of family routines and memories in ways that go far beyond a typical membership.
For Rebekah, that is what makes this chapter of The New Children’s Museum feel so meaningful. Every family arrives carrying something different with them, and the museum continues working to create a space large enough to hold all of it: creativity, curiosity, connection, and the simple human need to feel that you belong somewhere.
The BSP Difference
Coming from advocacy and public affairs rather than a traditional philanthropy background, Rebekah understood that she would likely be viewed as a different kind of advancement candidate. Still, throughout the search process, she felt that BSP and The New Children’s Museum leadership team took the time to look beyond a conventional resume and consider the broader strengths she could bring to the role, including strategic communication, relationship-building, and community-centered leadership.
“When I first reviewed Rebekah’s background, I knew she would raise eyebrows in a traditional advancement search. She hadn’t come up through the philanthropy pipeline, but that was exactly what excited me,” said Sarah Thompson, Blair Search Partners’ Senior Director of Executive Search & Recruiting. “What she had was something harder to teach: the ability to move people, to build trust across communities, and to understand that fundraising at its core is about relationships and mission. The moment I spoke with her, I knew she wasn’t just a strong candidate, she was the right one.”
Looking back, Rebekah appreciated how intentional the process felt from the beginning. The conversations with Blair Search Partners gave her space to understand not only the responsibilities of the role, but also the leadership dynamics, organizational culture, and long-term vision of the museum itself. That experience helped her feel more grounded in the decision she was making and more confident about the team she would be joining.
Looking Ahead
As The New Children’s Museum continues evolving, the organization remains grounded in its mission of fostering creativity, connection, and belonging for children and families across San Diego County.
For Rebekah, the work is about continuing to build spaces where families feel welcomed, where children are encouraged to explore and express themselves freely, and where community is created through shared experiences, curiosity, and care. Through thoughtful storytelling, relationship-building, and a deep understanding of the families the museum serves, she continues helping shape a museum experience that feels both meaningful and deeply human.
Your Next Opportunity Starts Here
We are proud to celebrate Rebekah and the meaningful impact she continues to make at The New Children’s Museum. Her leadership reflects the power of thoughtful communication, strong relationships, and mission-driven vision to shape organizations in ways that genuinely touch people’s lives. Congratulations, Rebekah!
If you’re an organization striving to make a difference by hiring a team of changemakers, or an individual looking for your next career move in the nonprofit sector, visit us at blairsearchpartners.com and let’s see what we can do together.
We’d love to help you find your next great hire.