Marie Rodriguez, a community service officer for the City of Reno, has been selected to be a new Library Board of Trustee amid culture wars over what’s on offer at our local libraries.
She was voted in from a large pool of applicants by Commissioners Alexis Hill, Mariluz Garcia and Mike Clark.
Following lots of comings and goings, the library board is now full, with Ann Silver as chair, Tami Ruf as vice chair and Lea Moser and Gianna Jacks acting as trustees on the board.
A published author who supports literacy and diversity efforts, Rodriguez grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and previously worked as a customer service manager for American Airlines and as a truck driver.
She’s also a chair of the Reno Arts and Culture Commission as well as a member of the Ward 3 NAB.
In comments before the vote, she made in both Spanish and English, she stressed the importance of reaching out to the region’s large Latino communities.
In a recent LinkedIn comment, below a photograph with Doug Emhoff, she wrote: “My hours of volunteering in the community and serving on boards has only made me love this Biggest Little city more. It's put me in touch with so many wonderful people in the community. When I attended my first city council meeting that set me on this path, I never imagined that, along the way, I'd meet Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. What an honor! He was so gracious and kind.”
Another recently appointed Trustee Gianna Jacks has called for Library Director Jeff Scott to be fired, joining vocal community members who are active at board meetings and on social media in wanting our local libraries to be run differently.