Board of Trustees

Dani French, President

Elizabeth Dickey, Vice President

Jim Kelly, Reporting Secretary

Michael Grisham, Treasurer

Trustees: Jessica Almeleh-Frazer, Miranda Barry, Wesley Tillman Brown, Joe Ferris, Linda Friedner, Sean Gilleran, Kellen Henry, Crystal Jeffs, Jim Kelly, Ryan Kelly, Madeleine Raffel-Meehan, and SJ Williams.

The Library Board meets on the third Thursday of the month at 6pm at the Library. Note: the April meeting will be held on Thursday, April 11 at 6pm due to a scheduling conflict on the third Thursday.

For more information about the Board of Trustees, click the link below or contact boardpresident@hudsonarealibrary.org.

What does the Board do and how to join?

More about the Trustees

Jessica Almeleh-Frazer

Jessica holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and is currently enrolled in the MSW program at the University at Albany. As a Nationally Board certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC), she is dedicated to promoting holistic well-being. Jessica runs a private wellness practice in the Hudson, NY area. She made Ghent, NY her permanent home during the pandemic after previously being a weekender. She is also a mom and passionate about animal rights, loves practicing yoga and cooking healthy meals.

Favorite books – Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini & The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Miranda Barry

Miranda is a producer for theater, film and TV who moved to Hudson in 2013 and is a member of Hudson’s Historic Preservation Commission. She is currently producing “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom,” a musical about the Voting Rights movement in 1965. Previously, she was Executive VP Creative Director for Sesame Street, in charge of all US and global productions.

Favorite book – Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Elizabeth Dickey

Elizabeth Dickey is a writer, educator, and community advocate originally from Long Island. She received her MFA in fiction from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. Before moving to Hudson in 2018, she was a volunteer crisis counselor for NYC Anti-Violence Project, a teaching assistant with Art Start, and a member of the University of Michigan’s Collective Against White Supremacy. She previously served on Mayor Johnson’s Police Reconciliation & Advisory Commission.

Favorite book – To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Joe Ferris

With a childhood in Brooklyn and teenage years in Vermont, Joseph Ferris has spent hours in libraries everywhere from big cities to small towns. His background is in political consulting and public affairs campaigns. He is currently Government Relations Manager for the Albany-based anti-hunger non-profit, Hunger Solutions New York. His passion for bicycling has taken him on solo rides from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC and Kansas City to Manhattan. Typically carrying at least two books in his messenger bag, he is a long-time fan of the New York Knicks, Washington Nationals, and Seton Hall Pirates’ basketball.

Favorite books – Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Dani French

Dani French is a writer, mom, and ramen enthusiast who has lived in Hudson for almost a decade. She works as a content strategist for an e-commerce company and was the co-founder of the long-running Volume Reading Series. Dani enjoys roller skating with her kids, reading three books at once, and strolling through the Hudson Cemetery.

Favorite book – A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

Linda Friedner

Linda Friedner is currently SVP Associate General Counsel and Employment Counsel for Penguin Random House LLC. Her first job at 14 was as a page at the Public Library in Great Neck NY (Long Island). She has been a part-time resident of Hudson since 2016, and moved here full-time in June 2020. Linda served on Mayor Kamal Johnson’s Police Advisory and Reconciliation Commission, and volunteers with other community organizations in Hudson. Ms. Friedner also has an MFA in non-fiction from The New School in Manhattan.

Favorite book – White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Sean Gilleran

Sean is a financial services executive with Expedia Group and leads partnerships within the Expedia Global Payments organization. He has 15 years of industry experience in payments, strategic partnerships and marketing from companies like Stripe and American Express. Sean has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Willamette University and enjoys spending his free time reading, hiking, exploring the Hudson Valley and learning about new technology.

Favorite book – The Velvet Rage by Alan Downs

Michael Grisham

PhD in experimental psychology turned computer nerd. Developed ways for people to use computers, at Bell Laboratories, Burnett Group, and Art Science Code. Now consulting. Member of Greenport Planning Board and chair of Greenport Democratic Party.

Favorite book – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Kellen Henry

Kellen leads product development for Semafor, a global news startup founded in 2022. She has worked in journalism and tech at The New York Times and Associated Press. Originally from West Virginia, she lives in Hudson with her spouse and a few hives of honey bees. She loves spending time hiking, gardening and watching heron and osprey by kayak on the river. She particularly enjoys fiction by Orhan Pamuk and Colson Whitehead and nonfiction about maritime disasters and polar exploration.

Favorite book – East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Crystal Jeffs

Crystal is a business design consultant, living and raising a family in gorgeous Hudson, New York. Her background is in strategic and innovative initiatives across design, technology, communications and human resources. Her strength lies in leading hybrid teams, thinking vision to execution, stitching end to end experiences from strategy to execution — to create meaningful experiences and/or products. While she grew up without a library in her hometown, she is gravitated to it now as she sees how much it can offer in terms of growth and unlocking human potential in a community. She hails from Greece, is always working on a renovation project, gives back as a mentor and coach and would love to build a maker community space in Hudson one day

Favorite book – TBD by TBD

Jim Kelly

Jim is a licensed Occupational Therapist, writer, music lover, and canoeing enthusiast. He currently writes articles and video scripts that help rehabilitation professionals (PTs, OTs, SLPs, and others) use an electronic medical record (EMR) software in Outpatient Clinical settings. He volunteers maintaining trails with the Columbia Land Conservancy and has previously volunteered with Literacy Connections in Hudson and worked as a Respite Worker at a local non profit mental health agency. Originally from Long Island, he has spent almost a decade living in Columbia County and loves taking local hikes with his partner and their dog.

Favorite book – Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

Ryan Kelly

Ryan is happy to call Hudson a permanent home after living in Brooklyn and prior to that San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston. Ryan has developed brand growth, strategy, sales and business development for consumer products and publishing brands. Personal free time includes reading, films, travel, design, hiking, biking, and managing the daily calendars of a dog & cat.

Favorite book – The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon by Tom Spanbauer

Carol Pledger

Carol and her husband have lived in the Hudson area since 2010. She is now retired after serving as the chief administration officer for a major non-profit, Blue Meridian Partners. Before that she served as global head of talent for Goldman Sachs and UBS, and as a management consultant with Accenture. Carol grew up in the UK and lived and worked in several countries before moving to the US in 2000.

Favorite book – The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Madeleine Raffel-Meehan

Madeleine has been a library patron in Palo Alto, Cambridge, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Saratoga Springs, and of course, Hudson. She has represented authors as a literary agent, volunteered in schools as a reading tutor, consulted on restaurant operations, and worked in people strategy at a tech company. In her personal and professional lives, she thrives in making order from chaos. Maddie lives in Hudson with her family of avid readers.

Favorite books – From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg and You Matter by Christian Robinson

Gary Sheffer

Sheffer is the Sandra A. Frazier Distinguished Professor of Public Relations at Boston University and previously led communications globally for GE. He started his career as a journalist at the Register-Star in Hudson. He is a graduate of Hudson High School and Siena College.

Favorite books – Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo.

SJ Williams

SJ has enjoyed a multi-faceted design career ranging from global visual director to consultant on brand development, event production and trend forecasting. SJ has lived in Hudson for over a decade, where she founded culture + commerce project, a design gallery focused on regional makers and custom furniture. Currently, SJ partners with designers, retailers and artists to develop custom marketing and promotional strategies. She has also served on a variety of non-profit organizations, including The Hudson Business Coalition, The Prison Public Memory Project, Design Hudson, The Hudson Eye and WiseBodies, in addition to her current position as Co-Chair of the OutHudson 2023 Pride Parade and Festival. SJ’s work has been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Rural Intelligence and Chronogram Media.

Favorite books – Orlando by Virginia Woolf, 1984 by George Orwell & IQ84 by Haruki Murakami.