In April of this year, Redwood City Library Foundation welcomed our new Executive Director, Lisa Hicks-Dumanske. She then had the challenging tasks of meeting all board members, managing board meetings, and coming up to speed on the Foundation itself, all in the virtual world of telephone calls, Zoom meetings, and a closed Library!
Lisa was born and raised in Redwood City. After graduating from Sequoia High School, she volunteered with an international service organization abroad for one year, and then returned home and attended Cañada College. She transferred to San Francisco State University, where she graduated with a BA in Psychology. Lisa was the first in her family to graduate from college.
Lisa was married to John Dumanske for 26 years. They settled in Redwood City and had two children, now aged 21 and 25. John was a high school math and computer science teacher at Menlo Atherton High School for 20+ years before he died of cancer in 2017. Before becoming RCLF executive director, Lisa served two four-year terms on the Redwood City Library Board. Her prior work experience includes director positions at CuriOdyssey and Peninsula Interfaith Action (now Faith in Action).
Lisa lives in Redwood City and is sheltering-in-place with son Liam, mother Ann, sister Laura, dog Batman, and cat Bagheera (who sometimes makes appearances in Zoom meetings). In her spare time, she enjoys reading, knitting, and travel. She plans a photo safari in South Africa as soon as travel is allowed again. Lisa is passionate about literacy, science fluency, and advocacy with a focus on leadership development. She is dedicated to the values of equity, inclusion, innovation, and sustainability, and is currently a candidate for elected office as Trustee for the San Mateo County Community College District for Redwood City, East Palo Alto, and East Menlo Park.
Lisa’s vision for the RCLF is to initially explore its infrastructure, purpose, vision, capacity, and everyone’s role to prepare for rigorous strategic planning. We’ve mapped out the next year of training and capacity-building and will begin a board recruitment process in 2021.