Board of Directors & Staff

Board of Directors

Kate flaim, President

The daughter of a librarian, Kate is a lifelong bookworm and library enthusiast. Currently a freelance journalist and writer, she has worked at Fortune Magazine and written for Fast Company, Fit Pregnancy, Chicago Magazine, and others, in addition to working as a strategy consultant and an academic editor. A native Oregonian, she and her husband have lived in Cambridge since 2007 and are regulars at the Main Library and the Boudreau Branch. The mother of three, including two Cambridge Public School students, she is a firm believer in the importance of libraries as tools of social justice, opportunity, and equity.

Peter Bryant, Treasurer

Peter Bryant has lived in Cambridge for 40 years and has long benefited from and supported public libraries. He served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and was responsible for managing museum operations and the initiation and implementation of museum-wide initiatives. His previous experiences include leadership positions at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Harvard University, and the Outward Bound Schools in North Carolina and New Hampshire. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Dartmouth College.

Laura Roberts, Secretary

In 2024, Laura challenged herself to read 100 books, a goal she hit on October 31… almost all of the 100 books borrowed from CPL! When she isn't reading, Laura is an independent nonprofit management consultant who specializes in strategic planning, governance, and organizational development. She was executive director of the New England Museum Association and Boston Center for Adult Education. Laura is the chair of the board of Central Square Theater and a member of the board and executive committee of History Cambridge. She teaches museum management at Harvard University Extension School.

Shahid Azim

Shahid Azim is a serial entrepreneur who has taken breakthrough technologies form labs at MIT to market. Currently, he serves as CEO of REACT Neuro, an VR based brain health platform combining digital biomarkers with AI to enable proactive, data-driven primary care. Previously, Shahid was the Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Harvard University, where he advised labs across campus on early stage venture creation based on disruptive innovation. Prior to this, he was founder CEO of at Lantos Technologies (3D Imaging) and Quanttus (Continuous Cuff-less BP), both of which were MIT spin outs with venture backed funding where he built teams across Cambridge and Palo Alto. He has raised over $50M in early stage venture capital from top tier VC's in Boston and Silicon Valley. Additionally, he is an active angel investor with MIT Angels and advisor to a number of technology startups and funds. He has an MBA from Sloan School of Management and a post graduate degree from Harvard University.

Kay Calvert

Kay is a strategic marketing and investor relations consultant with her own firm, K. Calvert Consulting. Kay has been a managing partner of a family-owned real estate company based in Charleston, SC since 2007. She has been a member of the Essential Partners’ Board since 2011 and Board President since 2013 where she has been involved in the Public Conversations Project. Kay’s background includes more than 20 years of experience with technology-oriented companies.

Lauren Cosulich

Lauren is a partner and advisor in Boston with Summit Trail Advisors, a multi-family office with locations nation-wide. She works with successful entrepreneurs, professional investors, newly independent women, and wealthy families to help them attain their objectives, whether they be financial, philanthropic, or otherwise. A graduate of Duke University, Lauren grew up outside of Boston but moved to Cambridge from San Francisco in 2014 with her husband and two daughters. Lauren loves reading, is deeply committed to community building, and believes in the power of libraries to educate, inspire, and connect visitors from all walks of life.

Mahmood Firouzbakht

Mahmood Firouzbakht is a life-long resident of Cambridge and a product of the Cambridge Public School system. After graduating from college, Mahmood taught history at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School for several years. After teaching at CRLS, Mahmood attended law school and practiced commercial real estate law at the prominent Boston law firm of Nixon Peabody. In 2015, Mahmood founded Boardman + Company, a local real estate development firm which he is actively operating. Mahmood, his wife and two children currently live in Cambridge and are active members of their community. Mahmood has loved spending hours in the Children’s Room of the Main Library with his family over the years.

Isaiah Jackson

Isaiah returned to Cambridge in 2002 to lead the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, having served as music director of Covent Garden’s Royal Ballet and conducted orchestras on six continents. Since 2007, he’s taught at the Berklee College of Music. A lifelong learner and former Trustee of the Boston Athenæum, Isaiah celebrates those qualities in the Cambridge Public Libraries that distinguish them among their peers and looks forward to enhancing the availability of all our Libraries’ wonders.

Klara Jelinkova

Klara Jelinkova is the Vice President and University Chief Information Officer at Harvard University. Previously, she held senior IT leadership positions in higher education, including Vice President for International Operations and IT and Chief Information Officer at Rice University, as well as Chief Information Officer and Senior Associate Vice President at the University of Chicago, with earlier roles at Duke University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Klara also taught courses on innovation and emerging technologies at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business. She holds a Doctorate in Education from Johns Hopkins University, a Master’s in Education from Boston University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Slavic Languages from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alta Mauro

Dr. Alta Mauro is an Associate Dean of Students at Harvard College. In this capacity, she guides a team of dedicated practitioners in embedding the principles of community and belonging in the co-curricular and residential experience of all Harvard College students.
Previously, Alta had the pleasure of serving as the assistant dean and founding director of Spiritual Life & Intercultural Education (SLICE) at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). There, she led institutional efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the intercultural competence of students, staff, and faculty. Spending six years at what may be the most diverse university in the world stretched her ability to adapt across sociopolitical contexts, balance authenticity with flexibility, and learn to be more expansive in her thinking, feeling, understanding, and being.
Alta earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her doctoral work focused on the intersections of race, class, gender, and upward mobility. She remains interested in social mobility, and the power of a quality education to make life more expansive. She is thrilled to join the Board of the Cambridge Public Library Foundation and support the many ways that the Library serves as such an expander.
Working and mothering claim most of her attention but as of late, Alta is back to walking early mornings, and listening to books on Audible along the way. She is a decent cook and baker, and loves a game of Spades or chess. Listening/talking to smart people about the world around us is her favorite thing to do. Alta feels blessed to have traveled a good bit, and is happy to be back to solo travel, meeting up with friends in various locales, and enjoying quick jaunts with her children.

Tamara Rogers

Tamara Rogers retired at the end of 2018 as Harvard’s Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development after a 40 year career at the University, which included senior roles in admissions and financial aid as well as in development. She now does fundraising consulting, and serves on the Learning and Community Outreach Committee of the MFA’s Board of Advisors and as a Charter Trustee at Phillips Academy. A favorite youthful library memory is being denied access to The Agony and the Ecstasy at her public junior high school in Lowell - until her mother wrote a note to say that "Tamara is allowed to read anything she wants”! Tamara believes the Cambridge Public Library exemplifies a powerful commitment to knowledge, learning, and service to the community.

Sheila Thimba

Sheila has served as Dean for Administration and Finance for Harvard College since 2014, having moved to Massachusetts from New Jersey. She was thrilled to find a vibrant community and to contribute as a volunteer in Cambridge’s Participatory Budgeting process, on the Cambridge Local First advisory board, as board member for Harvard Student Agencies, and now, on CPLF’s Board.

Sharon White

Sharon is a retired lawyer whose law practice focused on business transactions and general corporate work. One of her ambitions is to be a life-long learner. She has always loved reading and has wonderful memories of time spent in libraries from childhood through today, when she enjoys sharing the Cambridge Public Library with her English grandchildren. As a member of the Board, Sharon’s goals are that the Library be available and welcoming, and that all Library users’ experiences be as full and rich as possible.

Maria McCauley, Ex Officio

Maria is the Director of Libraries for the City of Cambridge and a member of the American Library Association (ALA) Executive Board. She comes to the CPL from Santa Monica, CA where she served as Director of Libraries.  Maria has also worked for the Somerville Public Library and the libraries at Northeastern University. Her research has been published in College & Research Libraries and Library Management Portal. Maria describes the Cambridge Public Library as a “learning, creative and sharing space for everyone, where knowledge and skills are attained, people are welcomed, and dreams are realized.”

Jim Roosevelt, Ex Officio

Public policy and politics are Jim’s personal passions. He co-chairs the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee and is volunteer legal counsel for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. He is a trustee of the Cambridge Public Library and the Cambridge Community Foundation. He has co-chaired Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo’s Healthcare Leaders Task Force on Health Care Cost Growth, and he co-chaired the Massachusetts Hospital Association’s work group on access to behavioral health care. Jim is a trustee of the Cambridge Public Library, the Cambridge Community Foundation and the Atrius Health Equity Foundation.
Jim and his wife, Ann, enjoy living near their daughter and her husband and two grandsons in Cambridge, MA, as well as visiting their daughters, their husbands and four grandchildren in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, CA.

Foundation Staff

Marta Lee-Perriard, PhD - Executive Director

Growing up in seven different countries, books were Marta Lee-Perriard’s constant companions during her travels. She started as a Nancy Drew fan and eventually took a PhD in French Literature at the University of Oxford. Marta went on to a twenty-year corporate international publishing career. During the pandemic, she shifted careers to mission driven organizations, including direct service with unhoused women in Cambridge. Most recently, she was Director of Development and Outreach at the Cambridge Women’s Center. For Marta libraries, and especially the Cambridge Public Library, are a vital safe space for the community, open to all and with infinite possibilities.

Isabella Pioli - Operations Manager

Born in New Jersey and raised in California, Isabella attended Smith College, graduating with a double major in English and Art History. She then graduated from the University of Stirling in Scotland for her masters in Publishing Studies, focusing on marketing and design. Her dissertation "A Book by Any Other Name Still Needs a Cover" utilized visual analysis to understand cover design throughout the last century. When Isabella is not working, she is listening to audiobooks which allow for her other hobbies: quilting, baking, dressmaking, crochet, and learning to embroider. Her favorite international library (so far) is the reading room at Château de Chantilly. Like all history/book lovers, she still mourns the loss of the Library of Alexandria.