Michele Bennyhoff dedicates her time to supporting healthy and sustainable communities in and out of the office. 

When she’s not working at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity (MOSAC) to build meaningful relationships and increase access to science and education, she tends to her local community garden.

She loves living in the Sacramento area with her husband and two dogs, enjoying the “community-based and homegrown” feeling
of the area, she says.

With a master’s of public health in community health sciences from Tulane University, healthy communities have always been her focus.

“Having a premier science museum in Sacramento is not a luxury — it is essential.”— Michele Bennyhoff, Director of Development and Marketing

“I enjoy helping shape opportunities that strengthen both MOSAC and the community we serve,” she says. This starts with the team she oversees, where she fosters a positive culture.

“Leaders inspire not through authority, but through meaning. They empower people to move forward together toward something bigger than themselves,” Bennyhoff says.

She thinks back to her grandmother’s generation inventing penicillin, her mother’s generation exploring space and in her own lifetime, the iPhone being invented, revolutionizing personal computing.

“There is no limitation on creating solutions to the impossible and I can’t wait to see what the next generations create,” she adds.

Of all the positive impacts Bennyhoff and her team have worked toward, the Inspire Scholarship Fund is her favorite. Designed to ensure underserved communities have access to school field trips and visits at no cost, it is made possible by the generous support of donors, foundations and community partners dedicated to advancing science education. The scholarship blossomed in 2025 and has already supported over 1,000 students from 11 schools.

The legacy Bennyhoff hopes to build is one in which MOSAC continues to inspire curiosity and is sustained by a community that deeply believes in the power of science education. 

“While it took tremendous resources, vision and partnership to build the museum, sustaining it will require even more: long-term commitment, generational investment and a shared belief in the value of accessible science for all,” she says.