Sandra Avila Ramirez
Judge Sandra Avila Ramirez serves as the presiding judge of the 98th District Court, which sits as the juvenile court in Travis County. A native of the Rio Grande Valley, she was the first in her family to graduate high school, later earning her B.A. from St. Edward’s University and ...
Ryann Collier
Ryann Collier is the Vice President of Brands at Arrow, a strategic public relations & branding agency in Austin. Throughout her career, she’s had the opportunity to develop and lead communications campaigns for several organizations. Currently, Ryann is a board member of the Dallas-based Pop-Up Books Foundation, and her past ...
Janis Daemmrich
Janis Daemmrich is vice president of client relations at Bob Daemmrich Photography, where she has worked with her editorial and commercial photographer husband for 28 years. She earned a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and was a sportswriter and editor at several daily newspapers, including the ...
Ann Gass
Ms. Gass joined the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) in 2000 and has served as the Director of Strategic Housing Initiatives since 2014. In her current role she directs the redevelopment activities for HACA’s RAD PBRA portfolio. From 2014 to 2021, Ms. Gass oversaw HACA’s Rental Assistance ...
Casey Gibbs
Casey Gibbs is the Director of the Library at St. Edward’s University and a family man, musician, gardener, amateur radio operator, and game master. A native Austinite and UT alumnus, Casey has also lived in Chicago, where he earned his Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of ...
Erin Dempsey
Erin is an activist, community volunteer, commercial real estate attorney, former small business owner and mother of two daughters. She spent the first 18 years of her career practicing law in various large U.S. law firms as a commercial real estate attorney, and in 2017 she co-founded Bess & George, ...
Kellie Sauls
Kellie Sauls (she/her) is a dedicated DEI leader proudly calling Austin, Texas, her home. Her passion lies in guiding and supporting others on their unique journeys of growth and development and actively supporting current and future leaders of our dynamic community.Kellie is a former early childhood educator so literacy development ...
Susan Patterson
Susan graduated from Dartmouth College and worked in the investment banking and high-tech industries for 25 years before becoming a licensed real estate agent in 2007. She embraces the Austin lifestyle, lives downtown, and loves sampling all the city has to offer. Susan loves to catch local theater productions at ...
Marvin Davis
Marvin is an accomplished Retail Manager with a rich history in the retail sector, including successful stints at Golfsmith and his current role at WorkQuest. With a strong focus on customer service, visual merchandising, and sales management, he is a results-driven professional who consistently exceeds expectations. Marvin's diverse skill set, ...
David Rice
David has always lived in Texas. Born in 1964 in Weslaco, he now divides his time between Austin and the Rio Grande Valley, where he teaches and mentors high school students in creative writing. South Texas and his Mexican American culture are the inspiration for his work. He is the ...
Sarah Ruttan, Chair, Community Advisory Council
As a bilingual librarian here in Austin ISD, I bring my expertise in education, language and literacy development, and book selection. Why do I serve? I am excited to help continue growing partnerships with local schools and am committed to BookSpring's focus on equity. This is a wonderful opportunity to ...
Ryan Parks, Treasurer
Ryan joined DK Partners in 2019 and became a Partner in 2022. Prior to that he was with HumanN, a branded direct response growth company, serving as the CFO from 2016 to 2019. During this time, HumanN was named to the Austin A-list of the 12 hottest startups and appeared ...
Stephanie Schweinfurth, Co-Chair, Events
Stephanie Schweinfurth is a recent transplant to Austin from Dallas. She has spent more than 20 years as a community volunteer spending much of that time on matters related to literacy and educational equality. Stephanie and her husband Ted founded Readers 2 Leaders in 2010 to provide literacy instruction, access ...
Stephanie Williams, Chair, Events
As an entrepreneur, and a special needs mom with a social work background, who is “raising readers,” Stephanie has a heart for helping others and a passion for the amazing things that reading can do for an individual and for the family unit. Raised in Houston, she came to Austin ...
Jeremy Striffler Co-Chair, Major Gifts
Jeremy is the Director of Real Estate for the Austin Independent School District. He has a B.A. in English from Colgate University, a M.B.A from the Rome campus of St. John’s University, and almost 20 years of experience in commercial real estate. Over the course of his career, he has ...
Andrea Angelo, Co-Chair, Major Gifts
Andrea brings her public library background, nonprofit expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, and years of service on education and artboards nationally and internationally to BookSpring. Her love of books began early with story hour at Martin Memorial Library in York, Pennsylvania. Fast forward many years later, her first professional position out of ...
Joshua Blank, Chair, Nominations & Governance Committee
Joshua Blank is the manager of polling and research at the Texas Politics Project. Born in New York, New York, he has a bachelor's degree in political science from Boston University and a master's and doctorate in government, from the University of Texas at Austin ...
Marcia Del Rios, President
Marcia has over 20 years of nonprofit experience across multiple fields–including education and law. She currently works on the Public Policy team at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA). Marcia was introduced to BookSpring as an AISD parent and then professionally through her work at Partners in Parenting. Originally ...
A Staff Farewell
Jill Gonzalez receives Storybook Hero Award from Emily Ball Cicchini (Executive Director), Drew Scherz (Board President), at Austin Taco Project, Austin Hilton, Aug 29 2018 Today is a bittersweet day at BookSpring as we say goodbye to one of our long-time staff members, Jill Gonzalez. Jill is embarking on a ...
Recognizing Our Board of Directors
As another school year ends so does the service of some outstanding board members. These individuals are deeply committed to sharing their love of reading with Central Texas. Please join us in offering a heartfelt thank you to Beth, Jan, and Jerry for their years of service! Though we are ...
A Special Thanks to Our Board
(Pictured above: Executive Director Emily Ball Cicchini, President Ann Gass, Immediate Past President Chris Randazzo) BookSpring was pleased and proud to honor some of our long standing board members at our May board meeting, on Wednesday, May 24th. We are blessed with an outstanding board and are always sad to ...
Defining The Path for Organizational Growth
For over 40 years, BookSpring has worked tirelessly to close the literacy gap in Central Texas. Promoting a love of reading from infancy is our objective, in order to make book sharing and reading aloud an integral part of daily family activities. Building on this history, BookSpring continues to redefine ...
Lynda Johnson Robb to speak at 2015 Storybook Heroes Luncheon
We are excited to announce that our 2015 Storybook Heroes Luncheon...in the Hundred Acre Wood will feature guest speaker Lynda Johnson Robb. Join us for this special event Wednesday, May 6, at the Radisson Hotel & Suites Austin Downtown, 111 E. Cesar Chavez. We are celebrating 40 years of reading ...