Directors & Staff

ROBIN YURAN, Co-Director

Robin Yuran grew up in Norfolk, where she attended Center School. She graduated from Regional # 7 and attended the University of Connecticut, Northwestern Community College, St. Joseph’s College, The University of New Haven, Brigham Young University and Charter Oak State College. She and her husband, Kerry, have a 19-year-old daughter, Castle, who is an artist and writer and attends University of Connecticut as a member of the class of 2010. Castle works as a tutor in the UCONN writing center and as an assistant to Professor Davyne Verstandig, the head of the Litchfield County Writers’ Group. Castle has had her poetry published in a recent anthology, Timeless Voices which is available for purchase at www.amazon.com.

Robin has had many different job experiences and has spent time as an artist, poet, columnist, coppersmith, jeweler, garden designer and nightclub singer. Robin began volunteering at the Norfolk Library in 1995 and worked her way up to her current position of Co-Director. She holds an undergraduate degree with a concentration in literature from Charter Oak State College where she graduated with honors for outstanding achievement. Robin did her graduate studies in library and information science at SCSU and is currently pursuing an MFA at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. Her hobbies include but are not limited to gardening, painting, reading, writing, and research on Mark Twain's connection with Norfolk, Connecticut. She has published her poetry in a number of newspapers and magazines including The Shy Librarian, Library Journal, Verbatim Language Quarterly and Carousel Magazine; her book, The Shelf Life of a Mouse and Other Tales is available for purchase at the circulation desk.

As co-director with Rich Dann, Robin focuses on library services, community outreach, and excellent diverse programming.

RICHARD DANN, Co-Director

On August 23, 2004 Rich joined the Norfolk Library staff as Circulation Assistant after a twenty two year career in Information Technology Management and twelve years in education. Prior to the library, his most recent assignment was as an independent contractor leading an Oracle Manufacturing software implementation for Schlage Lock in Colorado Springs. In 2002 he took an early retirement from The Torrington Company, where he held the title of Technology Services Center of Excellence Leader (Director). His teaching experiences include teaching in Torrington, Staten Island, and at the Tonga Teachers Training College in the South Pacific as a Peace Corps volunteer. As co-director of the library, Rich will primarily concentrate on handling business aspects of library operations.

Rich grew up in Williston Park on Long Island and in Wilton, CT. He did his undergraduate study at Wagner College in Staten Island and received a Masters Degree from the City University of New York. He and his wife Alexa moved from New York to northwest Connecticut in 1980. They currently live in Winchester Center. Rich and Alexa have a son Eric, who lives in Maine. Eric is married to a lovely lady named Sarah and they have two boys Skyler and Mason.

Rich’s interests include painting, pen and ink drawing, walking, fishing, and spending as much time as possible with family, especially his grandsons.

EILEEN FITZGIBBONS, Children's Librarian

Eileen, fondly known as "Miss Eileen" to the children of Norfolk, has been the Children's Librarian since 1988. Loving the arts, Eileen tries to bring enriching after-school programs to the children in town. In addition, she is the chairperson of the Entertainment Committee for the Library, which sponsors a lecture and concert series throughout the year.

Eileen was raised in Manhasset, Long Island, New York in an Irish-Catholic family and survived 12 years of parochial school. She went on to graduate from University of Dayton, in Ohio where she majored in Education and Health. After a few years of teaching, Eileen migrated to Tennessee where she dabbled in quilt design, organic gardening, and midwifery. Arriving in Norfolk in 1980, she decided to plant her roots and stay. In 1990, Eileen went back to school to become a licensed massage therapist and now has a private practice in town.

Eileen is the proud mother of three handsome sons. She loves stories, running in the woods, swimming across ponds and traveling to all places exotic.

MARY ANN ANDERSON, Technical Assistant

Mary Ann grew up in New Britain, CT and graduated from high school and college there. Her first job was assistant to the Business Manager at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, where she handled personnel and payroll matters. From there, she and her husband Bruce moved to New Haven where Bruce pursued his graduate studies at Yale Divinity School and where Mary Ann worked at Southern Connecticut State University in the Placement Office.

Staying at home with their four sons became her focus for the next twelve years until she began her part-time work at the Norfolk Library. Now, almost 30 years and eight grandchildren later, Mary Ann is still at the library, having performed most of the different responsibilities a library generates. Her current position as Technical Assistant keeps her busy "adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing" the book collection. Reading, knitting, collecting cookbooks and walking are a few of her favorite pastimes.

DEVERE OAKES, Circulation Assistant

DeVere’s roots are in the Midwest, where she first started working as s library assistant in both high school and while attending Indiana University. Her degree is in Marketing and Economics, but a love for libraries has always been a big part of her life. She met her husband while in high school, and they have two daughters who live in Massachusetts and Connecticut—the reason for their move from Virginia to Connecticut in 1996.

DeVere volunteered at the Kent Memorial Library in Suffield and then became a staff member, handling both circulation and reference. When she and her husband moved to the Norfolk area, she was a volunteer at the library, working with Eileen Fitzgibbons in the Children’s Room as well as with the Entertainment Committee. She then became an intern, replacing Marshall on a temporary basis and is now working as a circulation assistant.

For 18 years DeVere was a partner in a small business which designed Christmas ornaments for museums and historic sites. If she has any spare time, she likes to hike, bike, read, or knit. Doing a variety of handwork fits in there, too, whenever possible. And, of course, very important is time spent with her three grandchildren.

SHARON MENARD, Circulation Assistant

Sharon Menard grew up in Simsbury, CT. After graduating from Simsbury High School she went on to Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA where she received a B.S. in Biology. Following graduation she moved to New Haven, CT where she met and married her husband Howie. They have three wonderful children, Celeste, Bryce and Janelle. Celeste and Bryce are both students at Botelle Elementary School and Janelle will join them in the fall of 2005.

Sharon has spent many years working in the research field beginning in college where she studied the woodchuck as a host for tick vectors of Lyme Disease. After college she began work at a Yale lab where she spent seven years researching Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and additionally, the effects of microwave exposure on the body’s ability to thermoregulate. Sharon has had her research published several times in such journals as the Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences, Bioelectromagnetics and the First World Congress for Electricity and Magnetism in Biology and Medicine (abstract book). After Yale, she spent four years at Protein Sciences Corporation in Meriden. As a research scientist in cell culture she helped develop vaccines for illnesses such as Avian Flu, Swine Flu, and various strains of influenza. The vaccines were created using a new technology which employed insect cell culture for virus expression instead of chicken eggs, which is the industry standard. After a brief tenure at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sharon and Howie decided to make a lifestyle change and moved their growing family to Norfolk where she took on the most challenging and rewarding job yet, stay-at-home mom.

With her youngest child getting ready to start school, Sharon decided it was time to get back into the work force and joined the staff of the Norfolk Library as Circulation Assistant in February 2005.

In her free time Sharon enjoys reading, walking, hiking, photography and college basketball (Go Huskies!). She is also a great lover of animals and counts among her “children” the beagle Guinness and the greyhound Sunny. She loves to talk to anyone who will listen about the joys of adopting a retired racing greyhound.

LIOR TRESTMAN, Intern

Lior Trestman is fourteen years old. He was born in New York City and has lived in Norfolk for the last nine and a half years. He attended Botelle School and is now a freshman at Regional # 7. His interests include bicycling, fishing and woodworking.

Lily Helen Johnson, Intern

Lily Helen Johnston started working at the Norfolk Library in September, 2007. No stranger to the Library, Lily began her regular visits to the children’s room when she moved to town at the age of two. While hard at work as a junior in high school at Regional # 7, Lily enjoys being in plays, singing and creating works of art. Lily says she is “excited and grateful for her job at the library.