The Program

A professional community of museum changemakers.

Cambio Means Change

Each year from 2020 to 2024, Cambio welcomed a new cohort of museums to participate in a year-long professional development experience. Cambio was designed to help museum teams across the country shift their internal organizational practice to create authentic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) experiences that are more culturally relevant and responsive to Latinx communities.

credit: Exploratorium

Our vision

Museums pursuing ambitious goals through incremental change.

Cambio’s aim was to advance equity by building museums’ capacity to support Latinx communities’ full participation in STEM. Cambio’s vision centered on encouraging institutions to shift at all levels by examining the cultural dimensions and intersections of Latinx communities, STEM, and organizational practice. Believing that leaders reside at all levels within organizations, the program helped museum practitioners explore how they might spark change in their role as individuals, within organizations, and in relationship with communities.

The Cambio experience focused on incremental change, building on organizational strengths and improving what museums do well, with a goal of long-term transformational change that includes examining assumptions and interrogating practices, systems, and structures towards equity.

What it was like.

The Cambio experience

Our Principal Investigator, Veronica Garcia-Luis, shares what it was like to participate in Cambio.

The Cambio Model

The key concepts of Cambio were built on the following principles:

Experiential learning (more)
Three strands focused on understanding Latinx communities, embracing cultural expressions of STEM, and shifting organizational practice.
Six Spokes, a framework for engaging more effectively with communities, especially those who have been marginalized or underrepresented in museums.
Comunalidad, a framework for weaving together STEM and Latinx cultural practices, originally developed by a group of Indigenous Zapotec academics from Oaxaca, Mexico, and adapted for Cambio.

The Cambio professional-development model included:

A two-day, in-person kick-off workshop
Monthly interactive virtual meetings
Resources and tools (including Spokes, Strands, Comunalidad)
Peer networking with other Cambio cohorts
One-on-one organizational coaching
$5,000 mini-grant toward a strategic initiative
Culminating summit
Community-building activities

Personal Growth and Professional Development

Cambio participants share the impact.

The most effective professional development experiences are those that are ongoing and context-embedded, with opportunities for coaching, collaboration, and reflection. Through its structured and engaging online meetings, consistent check-ins, and inspiring in-person retreats, Cambio checked all of these boxes and then some.

Shannon Blady

Louisiana Children’s Museum

I would like to thank the whole Cambio team for an amazing couple of years. I have grown so much as a person because of the work done through Cambio. It’s in cohorts like these that I’m reminded we’re not in the battle alone, and the work must continue.

Kevin Perez

The Discovery

Cambio has been one of my favorite experiences, and a pivotal moment for me both personally and professionally. The Comunalidad you created helped me get deeper clarity around the kind of work that feels aligned with who I am. You have helped me trust my voice and step more fully into myself, and I will be forever grateful.

Odalys Lugo-Morales

KID Museum

I am truly at a loss for words on how to express my gratitude for the CAMBIO experience. It was awesome to meet other folks in the field who strongly believe in contributing towards increasing access to STEM for Latine communities. Special shout out for the planning of the Cambio Summit; all the speakers were thought-provoking, and the activities were super engaging.

Jean Franco (Frankie) Molina

Queens Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society)