Who We Are
Our Mission: To promote and enhance the value of the South End Library and Library Park as a cultural, informational, and educational asset for the South End community, free to all, through programs, activities, and financial support.
Board Expansion
In 2019 FOSEL expanded its board of directors to more broadly reflect the South End as the Library was planning on a multi-million-dollar expansion plan in the next three to five years. New members of the the voting board and the advisory board were voted in via ZOOM in July 2020.
VOTING BOARD DIRECTORS 2025/2026
Lauren Begley: Lauren has called the South End “home” for several years. She currently resides on East Concord street with her husband, Jeff, and a daughter, Charlie, and is excited to join FOSEL and be an advocate for family-friendly events at the South End branch library. Lauren worked for private equity and asset-management firms for six years before switching careers to work for a local fashion boutique, traveling to NYC and Paris buying women’s high-end clothing and accessories. Lauren has experience organizing and hosting events with a creative mindset. She is on the Young Professionals Network (YPN) board of local women’s shelter, Rosie’s Place, and has championed their cause since arriving to Boston almost ten years ago. She is excited to bring her fundraising experience from YPN to FOSEL and about helping to ensure the South End library is a safe and inviting space for kids and families. When Lauren isn’t spending time with her husband and daughter, she is with her big extended family in Boston, avid supporters of the causes she champions. E Concord Street
Tracey Bolotnick: Tracey is an attorney with a practice specialized in serving nonprofit organizations, including the Massachusetts Library Association, Friends of the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, South End-based groups like United South End Settlements and Friends of Harriet Tubman Park, and a host of education and literacy organizations. She is the Secretary and General Counsel of the Edward P. Evans Foundation, which supports cancer research, and serves on the boards of the Nexterra Foundation and Mass Audubon. She spent six years as a litigator and corporate attorney in New York and London and helped found and head the Varsavsky Foundation, a grant-making organization that aimed to bring technology to education in Latin America. For a brief stint, she was a volunteer grade-school teacher in Ghana, West Africa. Tracey has lived in the South End for many years and is raising her two children there. She is an avid reader and loves libraries. Claremont Park
Hermine Muskat: Hermine worked as a full time licensed psychologist in private practice in Wellesley and Brookline and now maintains a part time practice in Boston. She worked in the Counseling Center at Boston State College and taught in the Department of Psychology. She graduated from the Center for Digital Imaging Arts in Waltham and co-produced two documentary feature length films, Waiting for Armageddon and Doctors of the Dark Side as well as a public service announcement, Cut It Out, on the subject of intimate partner violence for the Cambridge Women’s Commission. She is currently engaged as a photographer with the Communications Committee at FOSEL and looks forward to becoming more involved with the South End Library. She has lived in the South End for close to 15 years.
Russ O’Haver: Russ retired from Ernst & Young in NYC. He lives in the South End with his wife Laura who grew up reading most of the books in the Mattapan library. He currently teaches Accounting at Northeastern’s Business School. Russ has volunteered for the FOSEL Programming Study committee and is actively involved in bringing information access technology (as in touch-screens)to the branch. He is also interested providing income tax assistance and financial literacy sessions at the South End library. West Concord Street.
Lynne Potts: Poet and writer Lynne Potts is the author of three books of poetry, two local histories, and numerous freelance articles. She won the National Poetry Review Press award in 2012, had work selected for Poetry Daily, and has received numerous awards and fellowships.
Lynne has traveled extensively in Central and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She lives in Boston and New York.
Licia Sky: Licia is a singer-songwriter, playwright, and South End resident. She leads writing retreats and experiential movement and vocalizing workshops to facilitate self-awareness and connection with others. In the late nineties, she ran a poetry and music “open mic” for three years. She would like to start an “open mic” reading for the community through the South End library. Upton Street
Elizabeth Taylor: A South End artist and art teacher at MFA. She has designed the beautiful new FOSEL book bags centered on a prominent FOSEL logo. Her work was featured in one of the Local/Focus shows last year. Tremont Street
FOUNDER
Marleen Nienhuis: Marleen formalized an already existing South End Library Friends group into a 501C3 non-profit in 2008, enabling it to raise funds for programming and physical improvements for the library and Library Park. With FOSEL board members, she organized the South End Writes author series, the summer Jazz & Blues concerts with Pat Loomis, the Library Park Easter Egg Hunt, the Local/Focus window installations (spearheaded by former advisory board member Karen Watson) and the Award Winning Books window (with director Jennifer Watson and advisor Reinhold Mahler). She resigned as president of FOSEL in 2010, stayed on as an advisor, but returned as interim clerk and then president from 2014 to 2020. In the 1990s, she was a founding board member, treasurer and president of the Friends of Titus Sparrow Park when its Friends group lobbied successfully for the park’s renovation while, with other board members, developing the Titus Sparrow Park summer programming for children, and the music-in-the-park programs. She is the membership chair of the Rutland Square Association. She was born and raised in Amsterdam, graduated from the Columbia Journalism School, and worked as a reporter/editor for various organizations for ten years until motherhood intervened in the 1990s.
If you would like to participate, or have suggestions about making the library or Library Park a better place for you and yours, please email us at info@friendsofsouthendlibrary.org.
FOSEL’s 2019 Board recruitment brochure:
From left to right: Licia Sky, Don Haber, Maura Harrington, Michael Fox, Liane Crawford, Ed Hostetter, Jackie McRath, Marleen Nienhuis, State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, Kim Clark, Barbara Sommerfeld, Michelle Laboy, Marilyn Davillier, Chris Fagg. Taken at the 2018 Annual Meeting at the SE Library.