Library Board of Trustees
The Lynnfield Public Library is governed by a 5 member Board of Trustees, elected for 3 years with overlapping terms.
The current Trustees are:
- Anne Malenfant, Chair – 2027
- Darlene Samikkannu Kumar, Vice Chair – 2026
- Joe Gallagher – 2027
- Karin Round – 2028
- Stephanie Slate – 2028
The Lynnfield Public Library Board of Trustees meet monthly on the Mezzanine of the Lynnfield Public Library. These meetings are open to the public. To view the minutes and agendas of the Library Board of Trustees, please see the Lynnfield Town website. The Library Trustees and Library Director meet monthly in the Library Mezzanine to discuss Library operations. All Trustee meetings are open to the public. Please see our Event Calendar to see all upcoming meetings of the Board of Trustees.
Mission
As established in the Lynnfield Town Charter, the Library Trustees are “responsible for the administration and operation of the Town Library, including staffing of professional library staff, acquisitions of books, journals, periodicals, and other materials relating to the library functions, and the promulgation of library rules and regulations.”
The Board of Trustees hires the Library Director, works with the Director to submit the annual budget to the Lynnfield Finance Committee, and expends money appropriated for the Library. The Trustees also collaborate with the Friends of the Lynnfield Library and the Lynnfield Public Library Foundation to enhance the services offered by the Library.
The Rules and Regulations were last approved on February 4, 2025.
Meet the Trustees:
Anne Malenfant (Chair) moved to Lynnfield in 2011, and lives here with her husband and two teenagers. Libraries have been a constant in her life, and some of her earliest memories are her grandmother’s Friend’s of the Library leadership, getting lost in the stacks at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, Maine in her hometown and then volunteering there as a teenager. She is an environmental engineer and project manager, and in her free time you can find her hiking with her family, running (slowly) or reading a book. She loves a rom-com with snappy dialogue, such as Jane Green or Emily Henry. Her favorite resource at the library is the Library of Things – and specifically the games. Her family has discovered many a new favorite game from checking them out!
Joe Gallagher is a stay-at-home dad who used the Library as my kids grew up, and am proud to contribute as a Library Trustee. Joe greatly enjoys reading and frequently browses the used book sales from the Friends of the Lynnfield Library to round out his family’s personal collection. His favorite book is the full “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and he reread passages every year to enjoy the language and worldbuilding in the books. His favorite library resource is the shelf of video games in the Children’s Room that you can check out – his family has saved millions of dollars by trying video games for free rather than buying video games.
Karin Round (Secretary) graduated with a BA in English from UMass/Boston and worked for years at Cahner’s Publishing Company at Design News, an engineering trade magazine. She then joined the family hardware store in Stoneham as the office manager for almost 15 years. Currently retired, Karin is on the board of the Lynnfield Public Library Foundation, as well as a LPL Trustee.
Stephanie Slate lives in Lynnfield with her husband, Richard, and their son, Jeremy, as well as Omar the cat. She received her BA in Communications and Perspectives (Philosophy Honors Sequence) from Boston College. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Bernard Lonergan, S.J. scholarship for excellence in philosophy and went on to earn a MA in Philosophy from Boston College in 2010. Stephanie currently serves as a Senior Value Engineer at Box, an intelligent content management platform. Translated: she’s a math nerd, helping customers make informed decisions by providing context to their spend. Stephanie started her career as an educator, teaching philosophy at Bristol Community College and Middlesex Community College, and even though she’s not teaching anymore, she always strives to provide context to situations to help people further their understanding and acknowledgements of differing viewpoints. As well as being a modern philosopher, Stephanie has a background in marketing, SEO, social media, and consulting. She is a published author for the Popular Culture and Philosophy series and you can find her work in The Red Sox and Philosophy, The Rolling Stones and Philosophy, The Handmaid’s Tale and Philosophy and What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Lover.
Favorite Library Resource: The Library of Things (the Slates are big puzzlers)
Favorite Book: Phaedrus by Plato