The next time you visit the Library, you might see a new face sitting at one of our public service desks.  Kristen joined the Library team in mid-July as an Adult Services and Marketing Librarian.  She will be responsible for creating our newsletters, fliers, social media posts, and other marketing/outreach efforts.  I sat down with her last week to learn a little bit more about her.

Thornton-De Stafeno grew up along the East Coast: New York to Florida and then on to North Carolina before returning to Orange County, NY to attend high school. After graduating, she attended Dutchess County Community College, where she graduated with her Associate degree in Liberal Arts & Humanities before transferring to Binghamton University to double major in English and History.

After getting her Bachelor’s, Thornton-De Stafeno worked as a freelance reporter and calendar curator for the Hyde Park Observer, and part-time as a circulation clerk at the Pleasant Valley Free Library in the Mid-Hudson Library System, where she worked for two and a half years before deciding to attend the University at Albany to earn a M.S. in Information Science. While in Albany, she worked at U Albany’s Dewey Graduate Library where she created a walkable tour of the library’s historic murals and stained glass windows. She also interned at Albany Public Library’s Washington Ave. Branch in the Youth Services Department, where she designed displays and created programming for their Teen Lab.

In her spare time, Thornton-De Stafeno enjoys hiking around the Hudson Valley, attending as many concerts as possible, and petting every dog that she encounters.

For a good historical read, Thornton-De Stafeno recommends Helen Rappaport’s Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge, which pieces together newspaper articles and journal entries of foreigners and journalists staying in Petrograd when the Russian Revolution began. For fans of the supernatural, she suggests checking out YA novelist, Maggie Stiefvater’s series, The Raven Cycle.

Please join me in welcoming Kristen to the Library and to the White Plains Community.