Two longtime Great Neck residents, Josephine Mairzadeh and Kathleen Gold, were elected to the Great Neck Library’s Board of Trustees on Monday.
Mairzadeh, a Great Neck resident for more than 25 years, received 223 of the 225 votes cast to fill a seat on the board held by Josephine Pizer. The other two votes went to write-in candidates.
Gold, a resident of Great Neck for 25 years, received 175 votes to fill the other spot on the board, currently held by Rebecca Miller. Roya Songhorian received 72 votes.
Mairzadeh and Gold were elected to four-year terms.
Mairzadeh currently serves as the legislative aide to Nassau County Legislator Ellen Birnbaum (D-Great Neck) and has served on the Sephardic Heritage Alliance’s board of trustees. She was also the library Nominating Committee’s endorsed candidate.
“Libraries are more than just books; they provide an ecosystem of service that both harbors and refortifies our community long term,” Mairzadeh said. “They are an incubator of technological advancement for people of all ages, who can have access to the tools to design what they dream – even if they couldn’t have access to it otherwise.”
Gold is a special education teacher for the New York City Department of Education, a private tutor and an executive function coach for Beyond Booksmart, an organization that “empowers young people and adults to manage themselves effectively by providing tools, strategies and mentoring that lead to a lifetime of success,” according to its mission statement.
Gold has also been active throughout the community, serving on the Hebrew academic board at North Shore Hebrew Academy, the executive board for Young Israel of Great Neck, and the board of advisers for Meorot, a Hebrew special education school in Great Neck.
“Now, more than ever, the library should play a central role in all our lives,” Gold said. “While we are all getting acclimated to the COVID-impacted world, one thing that holds true is our need for literature. Whether one is a baby just learning to touch the pages of a colorful book, a kindergartner learning phonics, a developing reader learning to comprehend a text’s lessons or an adult reading for pleasure, the library is a treasure cove for us all to explore.”
Marianna Wohlgemuth and Marietta DiCamillo were also elected to the library’s Nominating Committee on Monday to serve three-year terms in the seats currently held by Cheng Carey Ye and Siu Song (Alex) Au. While both incumbents received two write-in votes each, Wohlgemuth and DiCamillo each received four votes.
Rebecca Rosenblatt Gilliar received two votes and Robert Mendelson, Richard Lillien and Pizer received one vote each as well.
All four winners will begin their tenures at the library’s January reorganization meeting.
