Vice President
Diane Kelly is an avid reader and mystery author who moved to Hillsborough in 2018. Libraries not only provide vital community services, but also wonderful programs that enrich people’s lives, and Diane is proud to be part of an organization that helps supports these worthwhile endeavors. A former tax advisor, Diane has served on many nonprofit boards over the years, including stints on the board of the Friends of the Mansfield Public Library (Mansfield, Texas), various PTAs, Romance Writers of America, Murder We Write, and the Triangle Sisters in Crime. She served as vice-president of the Friends of the Orange County Public Library in 2022, and as president from 2023 – 2025.
Laura Sumrell likes to help others. She volunteers with a local chapter of Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.) and serves as its treasurer. This national women’s organization helps women achieve their goals by providing them with scholarships and assisting them with scholarship applications.
During her 46-year career at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Laura supported the company’s pharmaceutical R&D efforts. While at GSK, the Ayden, North Carolina, native supervised fundraising and team building efforts while leading global quality assurance and publishing teams.
Her past volunteer work includes tutoring students in reading and math at Fayetteville Elementary School in Durham; helping with the Special Olympics in the Research Triangle Park; and sewing Quilts for Kids for the UNC Children’s Hospital.
Laura’s favorite authors are Agatha Christie and Mary Oliver. She loves Rumer Godden’s autobiography A House with Four Rooms.
A long-time Chapel Hill resident, Laura moved to Hillsborough three years ago. She loves to hike, take photos for her Instagram account, travel, play the piano, and garden. Earlier this year she successfully defended her lettuce and cabbage crops from a marauding groundhog.
Secretary
Linda “Tess” Tessier is a retired Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies from Youngstown State University who moved to Hillsborough with her wife, Tara, in 2016. She recalls a comment on her first-grade report card that read, “Linda is fairly well-adjusted in spite of her advanced reading level.” Having experienced first-hand how it feels to have books taken away, she is a passionate advocate for libraries and for kids’ right to read whatever inspires them. “Tess” is also a published writer, poet and animal lover (especially dogs and horses). She also serves on the Board of The Bummer Fund, an organization in Ohio that provides funds for emergency veterinary needs.
Treasurer/Membership
Grace Johnston has lived in the Triangle since starting school at UNC in 2007. At Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, Grace spent ten years as a member of the fundraising team doing grant writing, data management, communications, and events. After earning her Master of Science in Accountancy, Grace switched roles and is now Vice President of Finance & Administration at Habitat. Grace lives in Hillsborough with her husband and their two sons, Calvin (five years) and Max (five months). In their free time, the family loves reading and taking walks around town, where they often end up at the library.
Book Sale Coordinator
Diane Decker still remembers a special story, fifty years or so later. Her second-grade teacher was young, beautiful, stylish, and very enthusiastic about reading. Diane’s mom decided it was time to start taking her children to the library. Diane found it magical, all those books and twin spiral staircases to the balcony. She’s never forgotten that library, and the magic. She chose Hillsborough as her retirement home three years ago, after spending her last sixteen years of employment at Duke Divinity School. She built a house here, and a real selling point of that empty lot was that it was only six blocks to Orange County Public Library. To Diane, it is a privilege and a pleasure to give back to the community in several ways, including serving on the board of the Friends of the Orange County Public Library.
Volunteer Coordinator
Wendy Scott moved to Hillsborough from Chapel Hill in 2017. She joined the Friends of the Library Board in 2019, shortly before her retirement from the North Carolina State University Libraries where she served as one of the Libraries’ Associate Directors. She earned the Master of Library and Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining NC State, she served as a librarian and library administrator at the University of Florida.
Melora Fern recently moved from Texas to North Carolina to become herself. Growing up as the perpetual “new kid” she persevered by making up stories and recently has learned how to hone that skill into writing fiction. As a recovering CPA, she now counts seashells, colorful stones, or words discovered on her hikes. Embracing new and old friends, undiscovered and favorite places, unique and familiar books, family, and all that comes with writing currently fills her days. After eight years of perfecting her craft with writing classes, workshops, retreats, and an awe-inspiring critique group, Melora’s months of querying agents and small presses has paid off. Her novel, “Whistling Women and Crowing Hens” (Sybilline Press) is out now.
Melissa Bourbon is the national bestselling mystery. A former secondary English/Language Arts teacher and Creative Writing teacher with Southern Methodist University’s CAPE program and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institution with North Carolina State University, she has applied her love of teaching to the creation of WriterSpark Academy, an online school for aspiring and new writers seeking to hone their craft. Her love of books and reading led her to the Friends of the library.
Meg Stouffer started working at her local public library on her 15th birthday, and received her MA in Library & Information Science ten years later. She enjoyed her work as a University Health Sciences librarian in Maryland and later as a high school librarian in Virginia. Meg has served on various task forces, boards of non-profits and spent a fair amount of time volunteering in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools. Her four children recall that Meg’s first and second grade classroom story times always began with a demonstration of where to find the copyright date of the book. More recently, Meg has been teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages with CWS in Durham.
Lisa Cawley graduated from Beaver College (which was later renamed Arcadia University) in PA with an MS in Early Childhood Education in the mid-eighties. Upon graduating, she taught preschool and Kindergarten for 8 years in private and later public-school settings. She married in 1991 and moved to Carrboro, NC where she taught at the Head Start at Sewell Elementary for a year until she moved back to PA with her husband to start a family.
In 1997 she was hired by the Parkland Community Library in Allentown, PA as a Reference Library Assistant. She was very fortunate to find such a fulfilling second career as a Reference Library Assistant and was employed for 24 years. She provided readers advisory and led engaging book club discussions, showcasing her passion for literature and eagerness to serve her patrons, forming a strong bond with her patrons and her community.
Lisa and her husband relocated to Hillsborough in late 2021, and she went on to work as a Circulation Clerk at the Orange County Public Library for two years before retiring. Lisa belongs to two book clubs and in addition to avid reading, she volunteers at The Orange Congregations in Mission Pantry and shelves books weekly at the Chapel Hill Public Library.