The Alexandria City Council reappointed Gwendolyn Day-Fuller and Kathleen Schloeder to the Alexandria Library Board. Day-Fuller serves as the board’s secretary and Schloeder as its chair. The Alexandria Library Board also welcomed two new members this year, the City of Alexandria’s Vice Mayor, Allison Silberberg, and City Council appointee, Helen Desfosses.
Silberberg, whose civic efforts promote social justice, has been an Alexandria resident since 1989, and was elected to City Council in November 2012.
Desfosses, who has resided in Albany, New York, has served as trustee in the city's public library. She has worked as a professor at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy (State University of New York at Albany), teaching within its Department of Public Administration and Policy and Africana Studies. She holds a masters in Soviet Area Studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in political science with a focus on Africana sudies from Boston University.
Three other members serve on the Library Board as representatives of the Alexandria Library Company. Currently they are Vice Chair Oscar Fitzgerald, Treasurer Anne Paul, and Richard R.G. Hobson.
The Library Board holds regular meetings that are open to the public at Beatley Central Library in the Dickman Board Room.
The City of Alexandria, Alexandria Renew Enterprises (formerly the Alexandria Sanitation Authority) and the Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission have announced that Danielle Fidler is the winner of this year’s Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellence Award. Fidler served on the Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission for 10 years as member, vice chair, and chair. Despite being a busy environmental attorney, she still found the time to develop and drive to completion the landmark Eco-City Alexandria Charter and Environmental Action Plan.
The 2013 Foster parents of the Year for metropolitan Washington are being honored this month for their commitment to their foster sons and daughters as well as to the children's birth families.
City of Alexandria Foster Family of the Year: Matt and Carole Keane are foster parents that embody the concept of "Bridging the Gap." They are wonderful team players. The Keanes work with the team to help find solutions that are child-focused and respectful to birth families. Recently the Keanes fostered a 3 year old; the child was able to make a successful and smooth transition to a relative's care. This was largely due to the Keanes' tremendous work in building a relationship with these relatives. They included the relatives in family activities such as the child's soccer games and gymnastics lessons. They also often had the relatives over to their home for dinner. As a result of this "Bridging the Gap" work, the child was able to make a smooth transition to his relative's care all the while being able to continue having ties with the Keanes.