After a months-long search, the Coastal Humane Society Board of Directors announced Wednesday that it has a new, permanent executive director.

Joe Montisano, most recently CEO of the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, has replaced Interim Executive Director Mary Fifield, who has seen the organization through an interim transition for the last year. Montisano arrived at Coastal on Feb. 24.

In a news release, Coastal stated that Montisano has 25 years of experience protecting animals, the last 15 of them as the head of various nonprofit groups.

Coastal Board President Tony McDonald worked with Fifield and board members Dorothy Wentworth, Liana Kingsbury, Mary Williamson and Fran Philip to recruit Montisano.

“Joe’s professional and personal experience with animals makes him the perfect fit for Coastal, and bodes extremely well for Coastal’s future,” said McDonald. “I feel confident that Joe is going to like and support Coastal as much as those of us on the board and staff — not to mention the communities and adopters we work with day-in and day-out — and I’m enthusiastic about his arrival.”

Having led three Association of Zoos and Aquariums (A.Z.A.)-accredited zoological organizations, Montisano is a strong advocate of animal welfare and community involvement, according to Coastal. In Florida, he introduced humane education to the school-age population and, by extension, to their families and the community at large. Last year, 80,000 students participated in the zoo’s education program, which focuses on conservation, preservation, and the protection of the environment, as well as on the animals that live within it.

Montisano is also experienced in leading capital campaigns, an endeavor that Coastal Humane recently embarked upon with the purchase of the old Dexter Shoe building on Pleasant Street in Brunswick. Coastal Humane Society’s “Campaign for the Animals” will transform the recently acquired Pleasant Street property into an Animal Adoption and Community Center, and renovate the existing facility of Range Road to be a clinic and intake facility for incoming animals.

At the Central Florida Zoo, Montisano raised and executed a $12.5 million capital campaign before raising an additional $8 million for further capital improvements at the zoo.

“I’m genuinely excited to join the very successful Coastal Humane Society team and to continue the great work they are doing every day for the animals in municipalities in Maine. I’m grateful that Coastal has the benefit of Maine’s only fulltime shelter veterinarian, Dr. Mandie Wehr, and I’m looking forward to working with her and with the entire board and staff of Coastal, which has a very exciting future ahead of it,” said Montisano

A native of Akron, Ohio, Montisano began his career in marketing and sales, after which he took the position of executive director of Wildlife Safari, a small zoo in Winston, Ore., where he created new attendance and profitability records.

During that time, he founded The Northwest Consortium for Wildlife Conservation Research, a nonprofit partnership with the Oregon Zoo, Wildlife Safari, and Oregon State University, and in his spare time, founded and served as chairman of the Saving Grace Adoption Center, a nonprofit humane society that took over operations of the only municipal animal shelter in the county where he was working.

“While this was some of the most difficult work I have ever undertaken, it was also the most satisfying,” Montisano said.

After an 11-year tenure with the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Montisano said he welcomes a move to Maine and a return to the shelter environment. He’ll be bringing his canine companion, Sage, along with him.

“I know the Coastal Humane Society has the potential to lead the state — and the region — in first-rate care, adoptions and humane animal-care education. That potential is what drew me to Coastal and ultimately what draws me to Maine,” Montisano said.

“I think the human-animal connection is a critical one, and one of the greatest things that we foster at Coastal Humane Society. Providing top-flight care for our animal friends while they are in our care, and then finding them loving and caring forever homes establishes a special bond that we are fortunate to create. It’s a responsibility that I don’t take lightly, and I consider participating in it a great privilege,” he said.

Coastal Humane Society of Brunswick is a nonprofit animal shelter established in 1950 that cares for about 2,500 animals each year in the Midcoast area.