The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum will turn your vision of a museum inside out! Nestled within the lushest desert on Earth, the Desert Museum is one of the largest and most recognized attractions in Southern Arizona. It encompasses a zoo, aquarium, botanical gardens, earth sciences, natural history museum, and an art institute with galleries. Beyond being merely a tourist attraction, the Museum's education, conservation, and research programs are top notch in the industry, and provide important information to help understand and conserve the Sonoran Desert. For 67 years, the Desert Museum has brought students of all ages to learn at the Museum, and has traveled to regional schools, providing environmental literacy, and education outreach programs.The mission of the Desert Museum is to inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert. The 98-acre Desert Museum founded in 1952, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization widely recognized throughout the world as a model institution for innovative presentation and interpretation of native plants and animals. 85% of the Desert Museum experience is outdoors, immersing visitors in a holistic experience of the Sonoran Desert.
Craig
Ivanyi ~ Biography
Ivanyi ~ BiographyCraig Ivanyi has served as Executive Director for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum since July 2010. Ivanyi is a herpetologist with a 36-year tenure at the museum. He began his service while a student at the University of Arizona. During his time at the museum, he's been the director, general curator, and associate executive director for living collections and exhibits; the curator for herpetology, ichthyology and invertebrate zoology; and a keeper of reptiles, amphibians, fishes and invertebrates. In addition to his work at the Desert Museum, Ivanyi is a published author of several works, including “Lizards of the Southwest” and “Venomous Critters” in the Get Go Guide series “Put a Little Desert in Your Pocket.”
Kevin Bonine ~ BiographyKevin Bonine is Director of Education at Biosphere 2 and a science-faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the UArizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment. At Biosphere 2, he helps design learning experiences for 100,000 annual visitors and 10,000 K-12 school children, offers teacher professional development, and facilitates residential research internships. In addition to teaching UA courses, including an online offering of Environmental Biology, he recently convened a world-class team of UA staff and faculty to generate a new MOOC (Massive Open Online Course hosted on Coursera) about Biosphere 2 Science for the Future of our Planet. Kevin grew up in Tucson, went to TUSD schools and the UA, then went to graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin. He has been back in Tucson with his wife, Angela, since 2001. They have two daughters, currently attending TUSD schools, and absolutely love our beautiful Sonoran Desert and Sky Islands. Kevin is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and enjoys chasing Gila monsters in his spare time.
