New Rochelle Public Library Foundation Welcomes New Co-Presidents

The New Rochelle Public Library Foundation held its Annual Dinner on June 18th at Posto 22 Restaurant. The evening brought together NRPLF Board members, Trustees of the New Rochelle Public Library and representatives of the Friends of the NRPL to thank the Foundation’s outgoing President, Chris Selin, and outgoing Library Trustee Whitney Barat. The evening was also an opportunity to welcome two new Library Trustees, Vera Salter and Nancy Weinberger, as well as the NRPLF’s new Co-Presidents Rod Rolett and Stephanie Tomei.

Roderic Rolett received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College and a Masters degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University and worked in the senior living financing industry for 27 years. Currently Rod sits on the Board of Trustees of the Osborn Foundation and the Brookhaven at Lexington; he is also active as a member of the Alumni Council of the Student Conservation Association; the Employment Committee of the Westchester Resettlement Coalition; and the Steering Committee of Healthy Yards New Rochelle. Rod and his wife Ann have lived in New Rochelle for 38 years, raising their children here. Rod and Ann enjoy hiking and bicycling: Together they spent three months cycling in Norway and the west Coast of Sweden in 2018, and they have also hiked and biked throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Stephanie Tomei, a native of Tempe, Arizona, received a BA from Boston College and a MA from Middlebury College. She has called New Rochelle home for the past 22 years, and obtaining a library card was one of her very first moves in her adopted hometown. She has been involved in the New Rochelle community as a founding member of Ward Acres Community Garden; a former President of the PTA Council; and an active board member of the New Rochelle Council of Community Services, and Hudson Park Children’s Greenhouse; she recently served as the Interim Executive Director of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence. Stephanie enjoys spending time with her college-aged children and her husband, Joe.

The New Rochelle Public Library Foundation (NRPLF) was established in 1994 to support the Library and all that it provides to the city’s diverse community of approximately 80,000 residents. A nonprofit organization comprised entirely of volunteer members, the Foundation raises resources and provides advocacy to keep this vital institution vibrant, up-to-date, and able to serve the needs of the citizens of New Rochelle. For more information visit the NRPL website at www.nrplfoundation.org.

In addition to the new Co-Presidents members of the NRPL Foundation include Vice President Lynn Green, Treasurer Joan Clarke, Secretary Cheryl Archbald, Dr. Amy Bass, Leslie Margot Demus, Judith Factor, Erin E. Harrell, Hon. Tim Idoni, Theresa Kump Leghorn, M. Lori Morrow, Leslie Newman, Christina Selin, Lucia Speight, Dr. James W. Swinehart, Sharon E. Weekes and Mica C. Wilson.