Who's Who

As an organization with a small budget and a large mission, we are proud to have a committed and talented staff and board. Their strength is derived from a belief that what we do every day makes a difference to an individual's ability to achieve their best potential through the life-long learning derived from the free access to education and cultural enrichment available only at the public library.

Amy Dougherty

Executive Director
215-686-5361
email Amy

Amy Dougherty has been with the Friends since September of 2001 and during that time implemented the Neighborhood Volunteers for Better Libraries program that has increased the number of active Friends Groups from 21 to 50 and designed the Volunteers are Vital project, a series of training seminars for Friends Groups and library advocates. In 2008, as a result of the success of this workshop series, Ms. Dougherty and the FFL staff wrote and published the first operations manual entitled: Library Friends: a Best Practices Manual. With the assistance of the Friends' Book Corner staff, she created the Books for Friends program, donating gently used books to area schools and organizations. Working with the Board of Directors and Friends Group members, she spearheaded the 2005-2010 Strategic Plan and achieved 90% of the stated goals, increased the number of staff, doubled the agency's budget, and raised the visibility of the Friends Groups and the overall organization throughout the city and state. Under her leadership and guidance, Friends Groups succeeded in gaining a $3.5 million restoration in the 2005 City allocation to the Free Library budget, breaking a hiring freeze that had decimated library service in many neighborhoods for years. Currently, Ms. Dougherty has built city-wide awareness, support, and collaborations about the need for continuation of library services in all neighborhoods and the devastating impact that the closure of branch libraries and the dismantling of the 54 branch library system would have on citizens.

Amy comes with a varied background including: owning and operating a successful retail floral design business, Gilded Lily; Hotline Manager at the Women's Law Project; and the National Program Director for the Gray Panthers. Amy also has a wide variety of past volunteer experience including working with street children in Bristol, England and building houses in a cooperative project with a Hispanic community of field supervisors in the San Joaquin Valley in California. She served as the treasurer of Friends of Libraries USA (FOLUSA), a national organization that serves Friends Groups across the country, from 2005 to 2007; was a member of the Women's Way Discretionary Community Fund Committee in 2005 and 2006; and served on the board of the Allens Lane Art Center from 2001 to 2007.

At the Friends, Amy's responsibilities include overseeing all programs and operations of the organization. She heads efforts to educate policy makers about the importance of open libraries in all city neighborhoods and communicates with the Free Library administration on behalf of library patrons and Friends Groups.

Presentations include:

Philadelphia City Council's budget testimony (annually)
Library Friends Groups - Mission and Role, Yeadon Library (2007)
Leadership Training, panel speaker, Business Volunteers for the Arts, Arts and Business (2005)
Advocacy Institute workshop, American Library Assoc. Conference (2005)
Love Your Library Rally, Central Library, Philadelphia (2005)
District Council 33 and 47 Librarian Division (January and May 2005)

Steven Duckworth

Executive Assistant
email Steven

Steve's position is a flexible one: keeping the office on-track and organized, overseeing volunteer and staff needs, updating the website, designing promotional materials for Group activities and our two bookstores, helping to spread the word about the Friends, and many other duties as they arise. He is happy to be a part of this beneficial organization.

Steve comes to us with a varied background deeply rooted in the arts. A graduate of Ithaca College and Wichita State University, he is a professional cellist and cello teacher. As a freelance cellist he plays in various groups in the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys and also serves as the cellist and manager of the Loudermilk String Quartet. Steve also greatly enjoys teaching cello to others and teaches Suzuki cello to kids as young as four finding great inspiration in these little cellists. Previously, Steven served as the Assistant Librarian of the Allentown Symphony.

Book Corner & The Next Page Staff

Jonathan Sipes, Manager
Richard Wilhelm, Senior Bookseller
Anna Bean
Curtis Kise
Jenny Purvis
Amy Shafer
Marc Washington

215-567-0527

Jonathan Sipes comes to us with 12 years of bookstore management experience, and is a lifelong lover of books. Jonathan is excited and enthused to seek out new avenues to bring in more book donations, as well as reaching out to book lovers that may not yet be familiar with what we offer. When not lost between the pages of a book, or among the stacks in one of the bookstores, Jonathan can be found listening to old 78rpm records on his gramophone, bicycling and running in Fairmount Park and along Kelly drive, and generally enjoying life in the Art Museum Area neighborhood.

The Book Corner and Next Page staff works together to appraise, price and sort a constant influx of used books donated by the public. They aim to support the Friends of the Free Library and to provide an accessible venue for the area's literary community through the sale of inexpensive, quality used books, poetry and prose readings, and other events.

Board of Directors

Michael Schaedle, President
Edward Bonett, Jr., Vice-president
Richard Brown, Treasurer
Deborah Hoxter, Secretary

Current Board Members

Irv Ackelsberg
Attorney; Langer, Grogan, and Diver, P.C.
Edward Bonett, Jr.
Attorney, Nation Labor Relations Board
Richard L. Brown
General Counsel, Delaware River Port Authority
Abhishek Chandan
Principal and Founder, Ideametrics LLC
Yvonne Cook
Principal, Chadwell Solutions
Angela Kweon Curry
Compliance Counsel, Burlington Coat Factory
Joe DeFelice
Philadelphia Director, Pennsylvania Republican Party
Dawn Maglicco Deitch
Director, Office of Government Affairs, University of Pennsylvania
Monique Durso
Teacher, William Penn Charter School
Nessa Forman
Retired - Vice President of Communications, WHYY
Ruth L. Gales
Retired - Editor, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Daniel K. Garofalo, AID
Office of University Architects, University of Pennsylvania
Roseann Gill
Amy Greer
Attorney, ReedSmith
Deborah Hoxter
Honorable Barbara A. Joseph
Court of Common Pleas
Mary Kilroy
Public & Private Art Consultant
Jane Lamb
Director of Risk Management, Philadelphia Gas Works
Honorable Lillian Harris Ransom
Court of Common Pleas
Michael Schaedle
Partner; Blank Rome, LLP
Al Schmidt
Senior Advisor, Republican Party of PA
Ethan Fleegler
Wharton School, Board Intern

Recent Board Members

Joshua Baer, Esq.
Attorney; Margolis, Edelstein, LLP
James M. Becker
Saul Ewing, LLP
Honorable Pamela Pryor Dembe
President, Court of Common Pleas
Joseph DiGiuseppe
Attorney, City of Philadelphia
John DiNome
Partner; Reed Smith, LLP
Martha Cornog
American College of Physicians
Terry Gillen
Executive Director, Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
Fred Holzerman
Consultant, Reliance Insurance
Honorable Joyce Kean
Retired - Court of Common Pleas
Ennes Littrell
Retired - Director, ActionAIDS
Kate McNamara
Special Assistant to Governor Rendell
Sarah D. Price
Leslie C. Safran
Senior Attorney; Sunoco, Inc.
Gretchen Santamour
Partner; Stradley, Ronan, LLP
Sally Steffen
Partner; Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
Letty D. Thall
Maternity Care Coalition
Joel C. Trotter
Senior Counsel, GlaxoSmithKline
Kathy Walters
Retired - Vice President of Technology, Exelon Energy Delivery
Honorable John Younge
Court of Common Pleas