Read the 2024 Press Release for MAAM’s Annual Meeting Award Winners here.
2024 Award Winner: Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
Receiving the Making an Impact Award is the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh for its partnership with Hosanna House, Inc. Together, they developed a revenue-sharing program which helped launch the Center for Aviation Technology and Training. Additionally, their joint collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s Travelling Exhibition Service made possible “Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight,” which tells the story of African Americans who overcame racial barriers to become key figures of American aviation. The exhibit is scheduled for a national tour in spring of 2027.
2024 Award Winner: Museum Partnerships Project at Washington College
In the seven years since its conception, the Digital Scholarship in Museum Partnerships Project at Washington College has revitalized several volunteer-run museums in Kent County by increasing accessibility to their collections both online and in person. So far, over 150 students have aided these sites in telling the story of rural America.
2024 Award Winner: Tudor Place Historic House and Garden
Tudor Place Historic House and Garden is recognized for its guided tour program: Ancestral Spaces: People of African Descent in Tudor Place. The tour brings into focus the lives of enslaved people and laborers, who are so often misrepresented in historical narratives or omitted altogether. The program has successfully expanded and diversified the Museum’s visitor community, bringing in people eager to experience the history being explored and to participate in dialogue around race and social justice.
2024 Award Winner: Michael Colon
This year’s Emerging Museum Professional Award goes to Michael Colon for his work at King Manor Museum in Jamaica, Queens. The Emerging Museum Professional Award celebrates rising stars in the museum field who have made outstanding contributions to their institutions.
Colon’s relationship with the King Manor Museum started as a visitor in 2016. Subsequently serving as a volunteer and intern, he has since joined the staff to become Site Manager. His research and management have resulted in robust community engagement and programs which have made the Museum a pillar of local activism.
Past Award Winners
The Katherine Coffey Award is MAAM’s highest honor. The following individuals have been recognized for distinguished achievement in the museum field.
2024 Recipient: Ann Trowbridge
MAAM presents the Katherine Coffey Award in recognition of years of distinguished achievement in the museum field. This year, MAAM is pleased to recognize Ann Trowbridge for her exemplary work in project management and museum architecture.
Trowbridge has played key roles in the design of many museums in the Mid-Atlantic region, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), and the Smithsonian Institution’s South Mall Campus Project. At the Smithsonian, her participation ensured the preservation and revitalization of the historic Arts and Industries building and the Castle. Her work consistently exemplifies the principles of sustainability and inclusion, ensuring that her museum projects are enduring spaces of positive change.
- 2024 Ann Trowbridge
- 2023 Philip Yenawine
- 2022 Phyllis Hecht
- 2021 Carol B. Stapp
- 2020 Not awarded due to pandemic year
- 2019 Kinshasha Holman Conwill
- 2018 Sonnet Takahisa
- 2017 Richard Piacentini
- 2016 Pamela Green
- 2013 Courtney Wilson
- 2012 Sally Roesch Wagner
- 2011 Rebecca Alban Hoffberger
- 2010 Mary Sue Sweeney Price
- 2005 Mary Case
- 2004 Pauline Eversmann
- 2003 Jim Gold
- 2009 Gretchen Sorin
- 2008 Martha Morris
- 2007 Richard Burkert
- 2006 Nicholas Westbrook
- 1998 Marie C. Malaro
- 1997 50th Anniversary of MAAM + Celebration of all award winners to date
- 1996 Lynne Poirer-Wilson
- 1995 Michael J. Ripton
- 1994 Joel N. Bloom
- 1993 Mary Alexander
- 1992 James H. Duff
- 1991 Samuel C. Miller
- 1990 Stephen E. Weil
- 1989 Charles F. Hummel
- 1988 William T. Alderson
- 1987 Susan Stitt
- 1986 Paul N. Perrot
- 1985 Joseph Veach Noble
- 1984 Caroline & Sheldon Keck
- 1983 William C. Steere
- 1982 Holman J. Swinney
- 1981 Frank A. Taylor
- 1980 Louis Clark Jones
- 1979 Eva Ingersoll Gatling
- 1978 Dorothy Dudley
- 1977 Edward P. Alexander
- 1976 Adelyn Dohme Breeskin
- 1975 W. Stephen Thomas
- 1974 Gordon M. Smith
- 1973 Ralph Lewis
- 1972 Hanna Toby Rose