The Annual Budget Hearing and Trustee Candidate Forum will be held on Wednesday. September 16 at 5:00 pm.
The Regular Monthly Meeting of the Board of Trustees will take place immediately following this event. 

Library Info

Board of Trustees

The Library is governed by an eight-member board of trustees, elected by the residents of the Sag Harbor Union Free School District. Board candidates must be residents of the School District, 18 years of age or older, registered voters, and registered users of the library. Board members are elected for staggered three-year terms. If you are interested in joining the Board, please click here for a nominating petition in English or Spanish. Click here to learn more about the nominating and election process. The Board holds 12 monthly public meetings per year at 6:00 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month. Additional meetings are scheduled as required.

The next Meeting of the Board of Trustees will be held on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, immediately following the Annual Budget Hearing and Trustee Candidate Forum at 5:00 pm. The Board packet, including the agenda and supplemental material, will be posted under the Open Meetings Law. Please note: The meeting stream is View Only. Those wishing to participate in Public Expression must do so in person OR email their comments to the Library’s Executive Director Kelly A. Harris at kharris@johnjermain.org before the meeting is called to order. In an effort to set clear expectations, we recommend you review our Public Participation at Library Board Meetings policy before attending a Board Meeting, especially if you wish to speak during the period for public expression. 

Live Stream Regular Monthly Meeting*
*view only

Click for the September 16, 2026 Board Packet*
(to be posted at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting)
*including the agenda, minutes, and supplemental information

The Board of Trustees will hold a monthly meeting on the third Wednesday of each Month at 6:00 pm, unless otherwise noted**

2026 Budget Overview   2025 Year in Review

Board Members

President
Diane Deger
(Term expires 12/31/27)
Diane received her B.A. in Studio Art and Art History from Manhattanville College, and a M.A. in Art History from Hunter College. Before opening a seasonal art gallery on Main Street, Sag Harbor in 1985, she began her career as a corporate art consultant in New York City. She then took a position with a publisher of signed and numbered limited-edition graphics, and within a few years began publishing her own editions. While looking for a book in Bookhampton here on Main Street, she met her future husband Gregg, and moved permanently to Sag Harbor. As Director of Education at Guild Hall, she initiated new programs for children and adults in both fine arts and drama and organized the first Student Arts Festival. Diane served as an education advisor for CMEE and led workshops in bookmaking for children. In 2001, she was hired by the Perlman Music Program to create an arts and crafts curriculum for the young musicians participating in the Shelter Island summer program. Now retired from her teaching assistant position at Sag Harbor Elementary School, where she spent many years as the library assistant and Japanese language and culture instructor, she continues studying Japanese and is an avid advocate for the rights of all library users.

Vice President
Dan Glass
(Term expires 12/31/27)
Dan Glass grew up in a small town in upstate New York. As a young child, he traveled extensively, visiting such far-flung locales as Narnia, Xanth and even outer space. Eventually, he settled down in Sag Harbor, got married and started a family.  He continues to travel and looks for many more adventures on the way.

sECRETARY
Anna Francesca Schiavoni
(Term expires 12/31/27)
Anna Francesca Schiavoni is a lifelong bookworm and Sagharborite, so it’s no surprise that the John Jermain Memorial Library has always held a special place in her heart. Anna remembers throughout her childhood going to the library with her brother, Thomas, where they’d pick a plethora of books and movies to last them maybe the next few days if that. John Jermain fostered Anna’s love for reading all year round, and especially in the Summer with their grade-school reading competitions. She carried everything she learned through JJML to GW, the George Washington University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2023 with a degree in Theatre and Music. Now, Anna is an actor in the Actors’ Equity Union. She’s played such roles recently as Mary Warren in The Crucible at Bay Street Theatre and Celia in As You Like It at Sylvester Manor. Anna is so excited for the opportunity to give back to her community by serving on John Jermain Memorial Library’s board.

Treasurer
Megan Curren Schmidt
(Term expires 12/31/26)
Megan Curren Schmidt is a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science and of Trinity College (Hartford, CT) where she earned a B.A. in Art History and a Minor in Maritime Studies through Williams College-Mystic Seaport. Beginning her career in New York City, Megan quickly rose through the ranks of the art and advertising departments at Penguin Putnam, moving on to land as a Managing Publishing Associate for Simon & Schuster at age 26.
After marrying her husband Marc in his childhood summer hometown of Montauk, the couple moved, lived and worked on Maui for two years before returning to the East End in 2002.
Outside of her early publishing career, Megan’s professional background lies predominantly in non-profit development and communications, most notably as the former Communications Director at Quinipet Camp & Retreat Center (Shelter Island) and at The CDCH Foundation for Special Children (Wainscott). Megan is a passionate supporter of local food and served on the Board of Slow Food East End from 2012-2018 holding positions as Board Vice-Chair and as Co-Chair of SFEE’s Events and Education committees for the majority of her tenure.
A year-round resident of Sag Harbor since 2009, Megan lives close to Long Beach with her husband and their teenage daughter who is a lifelong student of the Sag Harbor School District, JJML volunteer and a former John Jermainiac Battle-of-the-Books (team spirit award-winning!) member.

Lisa Frisicano
(Term expires 12/31/26)
Lisa grew up in East Meadow and attended Hobart and William Smith College, earning a BS in Biology while playing on and co-captaining the National Championship-winning women’s soccer team. Lisa graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life University and worked in a large family practice in Brooklyn prior to opening a clinic in Southampton with her husband Brian Di Russa. Lisa has volunteered to coach soccer to children in the East End community, including her own kids, Isabella and Nicky and acted as the In-House Coordinator and Treasurer for the Sag Harbor Youth Soccer League. Most recently, Lisa volunteers at St. Andrews RC Church to provide weekly floral decor for the altars, and grows and sells thousands of tulips and hundreds of dahlias depending upon the season. Her interests include dahlia breeding, knitting, reading, baking sourdough bread, walking at Long Beach, planning travel adventures with family and friends, and cheering on her favorite football club Liverpool FC.

Laurie Gibbs Harris
(Term expires 12/31/28)
Laurie has been spending her summers in Sag Harbor for over 65 years. She remembers with fondness riding her bike with her sister to the library as a child and as a teenager. In the spring of 2022, she realized her lifelong dream of living by the sea, when she moved from San Francisco to her home in Sag Harbor.
Laurie spent more than 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area working in finance. She has extensive experience in commercial real estate lending and portfolio management, affordable housing development and small business lending.  Laurie has held roles as a lender and relationship manager in Northwestern Mutual’s Real Estate Investment division,  Travelers Insurance Company’s Real Estate Investment department, Equitable Life Insurance Company’s Real Estate Investment department, US Bank’s Commercial Lending division, Community Vision’s REAL People’s Fund and with Community Housing Development Corp., an affordable housing developer.
During her time in San Francisco she served on the board of directors of  Working Solutions, a small business micro loan fund for nine years.  In this role she actively raised new lending capital, engaged in a broad range of governance issues including succession planning, merger evaluation and program policy implementation. Her favorite part of her engagement with Working Solutions was mentoring entrepreneurs. She served on the board of directors for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for nine years, where she established Corporate Council to increase funding from and engagement with San Francisco based corporations such as Whole Foods and Charles Schwab. Laurie also severed on the board of directors of NorCal FDIC, the State of California small business loan guarantee program.
Laurie holds a BA in economics from Columbia University and an MBA in finance and real estate from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Since moving to Sag Harbor, Laurie has taken on the role of chairman for her HOA’s hospitality committee and she currently serves on the board of directors for the Horticulture Association of the Hamptons.  She is an avid hiker, beach bum, textiles collector and an intrepid traveler. Laurie has traveled throughout Mexico, Europe, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Turkey, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India. She currently participates in three book clubs, is in her second year of sailing classes at Breakwater Sailing Center and is learning Mahjong.

Robyn Obler
(Term expires 12/31/28)
Robyn Obler grew up in Brooklyn and received her BA from Brooklyn College in anthropology. In between college and graduate school, she pursued a career in dance and performed in various theaters and studios in NYC. She received an M.A. in anthropology from CUNY Graduate School and taught at several of the colleges in the CUNY system as well as the United Nations School. Thirty years ago, Robyn and her family moved to Sag Harbor where her children attended the local schools and she served as Vice President for the PTA. She taught several courses at Southampton College, worked at a local bookstore and taught Pilates in a local Sag Harbor studio. More recently Robyn worked as a researcher for several Native American groups, traversing the country numerous times to do research at various archives, universities, libraries, government and religious organizations. The data collected was used by Robyn and her associate to write reports for the Native tribes to address issues of tribal identity and recognition, membership and historical connections to specific pieces of land. Robyn and her family have had close ties with the John Jermain Library over the years. Robyn has been in an ongoing book club for six or seven years and her daughter worked at the library before leaving for graduate school in library science. Currently, Robyn is a volunteer at the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry and is working with the Hamptons Documentary Film Festival.

Paula Wagner
(Term expires 12/31/28)
Paula has owned a house in Sag Harbor for 26 years, living here full-time for the past nine years. Before then she lived in Brooklyn, Paraguay, California and Boston. Each location she lived in presented different opportunities for personal and career development. One thread that is a constant throughout her life, though, has been the mantra “Give back to your community”, which she has done with energy and gratitude.
Paula graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Anthropology. While at the University, she pursued her skills and interest in photography working at scientific photography and museum photography on the campus. After graduating Paula worked as a project manager at Levi Strauss & Company for a few years. Not finding corporate life interesting or fulfilling, she applied for a volunteer in the Peace Corps and was sent to a small compania (rural farming community) in Paraguay, South America. There she worked with the Health and Sanitation Department and the local population promoting vegetable gardens, latrines, safe well protection, and construction of lorena stoves. Paula believes that she learned more from the people she encountered than what she was sent there to teach!
Upon returning to the United States, the experience in Paraguay prompted Paula to apply to Teachers’ College at Columbia University to pursue the field of teaching. She received a Masters Degree in Social Science Education and worked for fifteen years in the New York City public school system teaching American history, World history and other social sciences. While teaching, Paula returned to academia and earned a certificate in Archives and Public History at New York University. She has been working and volunteering her skills and time as an archivist to various individuals and non-profits for the past 12 years.
Paula’s volunteer efforts have spanned from starting, with a small group, a ‘free university’ for blue collar workers in the Boston area; to planting trees and serving as an appointee on the Berkeley Energy Commission in California; to membership on the Coop Board where she lived in Brooklyn.
In Sag Harbor Paula volunteered at the Eastville Community Historical Society and was a member of the Sag Harbor Historical Society Board of Trustees applying her archive background to those organizations. She is currently a Board member of the Bridgehampton Association and volunteer at their Book Bay bookstore. Paula has a long time connection with the library personally and through her family. Her parents Paul and Jeanette Wagner generously donated funds and guidance for the renovation of the John Jermain Library and sponsored writing workshops for Teen writers. Books, learning, libraries, community are all important themes in Paula’s life.