Thomas Blackburn
Taffy Field
Taffy is a long-time teacher, most recently in the Upper School at Waynflete in Portland. She is a former Trustee and Board President of the Portland Public Library.
Taffy is a frequent contributor to Maine Public Radio and Monitor Radio. She and her husband Eliot Field have a grown son and daughter, each of whom has a daughter. In the summer, they raise organic Maine blueberries commercially.
They live and Portland and Taffy loves libraries.
Halsey Frank
Halsey grew up in New York City and nearby Englewood, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Boston University School of Law. Halsey is an Assistant United States Attorney who represents the federal government in criminal and civil matters. He is married with 2 children. He and his family moved to Maine from Washington, DC in 1999. Since moving to Portland, his wife and children have made extensive use of the Portland Public Library. Halsey has been active in a variety of local organizations including The Friends of the Parks, The Lincoln Club, The Portland Club, The Portland Republican City Committee, and SailMaine. He also writes a monthly column for the Forecaster newspaper. Halsey was one of the conveners of the Friends of the Portland Public Library and hopes to read more books for pleasure.
Rosanne Graef
Rosanne was a middle school teacher of science, math and computer applications for many years in Maine and Indiana. She is a Maine native and life-long fan of Portland. She graduated from Hofstra University, holds a MS in botany from the University of Maine and is a veteran of the US Air Force. Rosanne enjoys gardening, sewing, traveling and (no surprise) reading. She's an active member of the West End Neighborhood Association and volunteers as a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages. She lives in the West End with her husband of countless years, Steve, and two cats.
Barbara Kapp
Barbara moved to Portland in the fall of 2009 and began volunteering for the Library a year later. She holds a a PhD in music theory from the University of Kansas, her native state, and has made her career in music administration with positions ranging from box office assistant to orchestra executive director. For 28 years, she lived in the New York metropolitan area with her late husband, conductor Richard Kapp, and their daughter Madeline, a violinist. Barbara has served on the boards of several volunteer organizations, including The Choral Art Society, for which she currently chairs the development committee. A member of two book clubs, Barbara loves books almost as much as music. She spends summers on Prince Edward Island, Canada, where she enjoys the beautiful scenery and has lots of time to read.
Dawn Leland
In search of a less chaotic life, Dawn left behind Washington, DC, a job in book publishing, a publishers newsletter she edited on the side, and other community projects.
One of the first things Dawn discovered upon moving to Portland in 2007 was the library, where she began volunteering. There she tackles the Sisyphean task of helping to maintain order on the shelves. She also volunteers for animal rescue, takes courses, devours books and movies, and tries to maintain a sense of humor.
Mary McQuillen
Kim Pacelli
Kim is in her third year at the University of Maine School of Law and is looking forward to joining the firm of Drummond Woodsum when she graduates.
Before law school, she served as Director of Residential Life at Bowdoin College and worked in Washington, D.C., in both the U.S. Department of Education and for the House of Representatives.
Kim’s an avid reader and makes frequent trips down to the Library from her home in the West End.
Aaron M. Pratt
Aaron is a member of the Board of Directors and the Secretary of the Friends. Aaron received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and his law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law. He is a shareholder in the Business Services Group of the Portland law firm DrummondWoodsum. In his law practice, Aaron represents businesses, non-profit organizations, investors, lenders and Indian tribes in a wide range of corporate, partnership and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, shareholder and partner matters, intellectual property matters, private placements, venture capital financing (representing both investors and targets), and Tribal economic development matters. Aaron is married to Kelley Jones Pratt and has two sons, Noah and Jack.
Ted Spitzer
Ted, President of the Friends of Portland Public Library, has been a Trustee of the Portland Public Library since 1997. He has fond memories of many hours spent at public libraries in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he grew up, plus too many hours at Butler and Firestone Libraries while at university in New York and New Jersey. Ted is president of Market Ventures, Inc., an economic development consulting firm that specializes in helping communities nationwide develop innovative local food strategies and projects. He is the principal author of Public Markets and Community Revitalization (Urban Land Institute, 1995). Aside from the public library, his other major volunteer commitment is serving as Treasurer for the local nonprofit Cultivating Community. He is married to Elena Morrow-Spitzer, owner of Maine’s Pantry in Portland’s Old Port, and has a fourth and ninth grader in the Portland Public Schools and a tenth grader studying vocal arts in Washington, DC. When browsing the stacks at the Portland Public Library, he is drawn to biographies, social history, and historical fiction.
Meredith A. Jones
Meredith is the Administrative Assistant for Friends of Portland Public Library. She also works at the University of New England in Institutional Advancement and considers herself to be one of the lucky ones who loves her job.
Someday dreaming of being a published author, Meredith spends time each day working on her novels. Meredith is always in the middle of a book, but her favorite to date is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. In her spare time Meredith enjoys practicing yoga.