Christine Meeker Lange named COO of Suncoast Science Center

The Suncoast Science Center, a nonprofit institution dedicated to fostering science, technology and math education in the community, has added to its leadership a woman steeped in the arts, education and public relations.

Suncoast Science Center Board Chairman Dr. Fritz Faulhaber and Executive Director Ping Faulhaber recently named Christine Meeker Lange chief operating officer of the center. Lange was formerly Ringling College of Art and Design President Larry Thompson's special assistant for the past eight years. Her addition to the leadership of the Suncoast Science Center will serve as a bridge to the art and creative community of Sarasota, according to Ping Faulhaber.

“We are eager to add Christine to the Suncoast Science Center executive team,” Faulhaber said. “We are anxious to open our temporary Suncoast Science Center facility on the campus of Sarasota County Technical Institute in the first quarter of 2015, and with Christine’s focus, we hope to broaden our connections to both the art and scientific communities.”

“It’s exciting now that I will have to switch sides of my brain,” says Lange. “Going from the right side of the brain of arts to the left side of the brain for science will be very exciting.”

Lange’s contributions and accomplishments at Ringling include announcing the college’s soundstage and post-production faculty, launching the college’s filmmaking studio lab, the college’s overall name change and rebranding, working with the Sarasota Museum of Art division and serving as Thompson’s chief media spokesperson and operating the college’s public relations initiative. Also during her time at the college, Lange was responsible for the two art center divisions, Englewood Art Center and the Longboat Key Center for the Arts; served as a board member of the former Newtown Redevelopment Council; helped create the SuREEL Cinema Lounge with Westfield Sarasota Square Mall; and was the creative director for the 2012 Venice Italy Architecture Biennale exhibition “Origins.”

“I hope to become a vital part of the SSC’s continued development for years to come,” says Lange, “and am really looking forward to the amazing challenges and opportunities that await me.”