Meet the Foundation Board
Kimberly Hensle Lowrance, President
Kimberly and her family moved to Lexington in 2011, and Cary Library quickly became their favorite place in town. She credits the library and its dedicated librarians with helping to foster in her children a love of reading and a deep appreciation for books.
Kimberly is a Town Meeting member and a member and past co-chair of the Community Endowment of Lexington. She previously served on the Site-Based Councils for both Bridge Elementary School and Clarke Middle School, on the Board of LexFarm, and as a Girl Scout Troop Leader. Kimberly joined the Cary Library Foundation Board in 2022.
Kimberly’s professional background is in nonprofit management, where she spent more than thirty years working for and volunteering at mission-driven organizations. Her free time is spent reading and traveling.
Susan McLeish, Treasurer
Susan grew up in Lexington and fondly recalls weekly trips to the Children’s Room to get a fresh load of books to take home to read.
Her background is financial; she spent her career in accounting and consulting organizations, first as an auditor and then in various senior operational management roles.
In addition to spending three previous terms on the Foundation Board, Susan’s community involvement has included serving as a town meeting member and has volunteered in various local non-profit organizations.
Susan enjoys travelling; especially hiking trips and spending time on the southern New Jersey shore.
Indramani Anandakumar
Indra has lived in Lexington with her husband since 2010 and has been an active member of the community ever since. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from UMass Lowell and works professionally in technology and quality assurance, bringing a thoughtful, analytical approach to problem-solving and collaboration. In her free time, Indra enjoys gardening, embroidery, and exploring Lexington’s trails.
Community service has always been important to Indra. She has volunteered in public schools in both Arlington and Lexington, and she continues to support our broader community through ongoing work with Veterans Affairs. She has served on the board of Shishu Bharati for more than a decade and is an active teacher of Indian languages, helping to preserve and share cultural heritage with the next generation. Her children participated in Indian Association of Lexington (IAL) programs while in school, and she has had the pleasure of assisting IAL with various initiatives over the years.
Pratip Banerji
Pratip Banerji has been living in Lexington since 2014. He has been actively involved in the community, coaching baseball, basketball, soccer, and robotics, reflecting his commitment to supporting youth development. Pratip is the father to two children who attend Diamond Middle School and Lexington High School.
Pratip is a passionate reader and believes in the transformative powers of libraries. He continues to be impressed by the Cary Library’s extensive resources and its pivotal role in the community. He is particularly excited about how the library has been evolving as the world has changed, including finding new ways to provide learning and knowledge to the community. As a big ebook user, he appreciates the accessibility and convenience they offer.
Outside of his volunteer work, Pratip enjoys outdoor activities, particularly running, skiing, and hiking. He also loves traveling with his family, exploring new places and cultures whenever possible. He has a background in technology product management, holding a BS and MEng from MIT and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth.
Louise Barbic
Louise and her family moved to Lexington in 2013, and spent their first day as Lexington residents in Cary Library. Since then, they have spent countless hours at the library enjoying all of the books, media, and programming it has to offer.
Louise graduated from UC Davis and earned her MBA at the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt. Professionally, she has over 25 years of experience in marketing research and consulting working with global organizations in the biotech, pharmaceutical, and CPG industries. Louise spends every free moment reading and talking about books as well as hiking.
Christine Belin
Christine moved to Lexington in the middle of the polar vortex in the winter of 2013 with her husband and two sons. She has been employed at Sobi since September 2014 and is currently CFO and Head of IT for North America.
Christine has an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management and a BS in Chemical Engineering, both from Cornell University. Professionally, she has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of finance leadership roles, including roles in Europe.
Christine is a grade parent for her two sons at the Fenn School and spends many weekend on the sideline of lacrosse games, soccer games or doing laundry! She and her family are members of several community organizations including Hancock Church where Christine has served on numerous committees and supported several community organizations, including the Outdoor Church of Cambridge, which ministers to the homeless of Cambridge. Christine and her family love Cary Library and have an annual picture of the boys in front of the American Flag at Cary library every Patriots’ Day!
Leslie Brunner
Leslie and her husband Ryan have lived in Lexington since 2012. They have loved raising their 4 children, Caleb (12), Catalina (10), Izzy (9) and Lexi (9) in this wonderful community.
Leslie is the Chief People Officer at Devoted Health, a company seeking to reinvent the way Medicare beneficiaries receive care by caring for their members like family. In her role, she is responsible for recruiting, HR, organizational design, employee development and company culture. Prior to Devoted, Leslie spent 17 years at Athenahealth in a host of operating and leadership roles. Her most significant role at Athena was meeting Ryan!
When not at work or serving as a shuttle driver for her kids' countless activities, Leslie is a volunteer at Fiske (serving in the library and on the Green Team) and at Grace Chapel. She also has served as a board member for mothers2mothers, an international nonprofit based in Cape Town that employs women living with HIV as community health workers.
In her spare time, Leslie enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, traveling (Montana is a favorite destination), meeting up with friends in Lexington center, reading fantastic books with her book club and “shopping” in all the neighborhoods of Cary Library with her kids.
Bill Cole
Bill has lived in Lexington on and off since 1968 and is an alum of Hancock Elementary, Muzzey Jr High and Lexington HS (’81). He is now retired but in his working years he was a social studies teacher and an administrator at Lexington HS for 20 years. He is an avid sports fan and has coached college and high school lacrosse, basketball, and tennis. He has a B.A. in History from UMass Amherst, an MBA from Babson College, and a M. Ed. From Bridgewater State College. Growing up on Belfry Terrace, Bill spent hundreds of hours over the years at Cary Library reading for pleasure, using the microfiche for research, and borrowing vinyl albums then VHS tapes, then DVDs. Bill’s mother, the late Margaret Cole, was a daily fixture at Cary Library for 40 years and it sustained her in many ways. His two sons have attended Estabrook School, Diamond and LHS. In his free time he walks around town daily, assists his wife Ritika with her business, Ritika’s Global Grains, and volunteers as a sports coach.
Wei Ding
Wei and her loving and supportive husband, Ping, chose Lexington to be their home in 2015. Their daughter, Cynthia, graduated from Lexington High School in 2018, while their younger daughter, Angelina, attends Harrington Elementary School.
Wei is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and also serves at the National Science Foundation as a Program Manager. Wei’s volunteer experience includes serving as the Executive Committee member and Culture Committee Co-Chair of CAAL, member of the Town Celebrations Committee, Board Member and Outreach Committee Co-Chair of Community Endowment of Lexington, and a mentor for the Computer Science Youth Volunteer Team. Wei also is the editor-in-chief of the Neighbor Gallery of CAAL.
Ravneet Grewal
Ravneet moved to Lexington in 2022 with her husband and daughter, returning to the East Coast after several years on the West Coast. Though they had lived in Boston previously, it was her husband — a Lexington native — who won her over by pointing out the Cary Library during every visit home. It didn’t take long for Ravneet to recognize that Cary Library is truly the heart of the town.
Ravneet is a passionate advocate for sustainability, equity, and community cooperation. She is actively involved in several volunteer initiatives through Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL) and is a founding member of the Lexington Food Cooperative — a grassroots effort to strengthen local and regional ties through community-owned businesses and economic development.
Her academic and professional background spans Economic Anthropology, Land Use Archaeology, Urban Planning, and Education, with a particular focus on how technology and mental models can integrate knowledge from these fields and support better public policy decisions.
To Ravneet and her family, Cary Library is more than just a library — it’s their intellectual home and cherished “third place.” She deeply values the library’s thoughtful programming, inclusive collections, and commitment to accessible knowledge for all.
Chandrika Govardhan
Chandrika and her family moved to Lexington in 1995 drawn to the town’s diversity, vibrant community, renown school system and proximity to Cambridge’s biotech hub. She feels privileged to live here and have raised her two daughters in such a welcoming community. The library, in particular, has always been a cherished gathering space. As longtime residents, Chandrika and her family have fond memories of events at the library attending Chinese brush painting workshops, exploring art exhibits, Science Café lectures, and spending time in the beloved Children’s room. Now retired from a career in biotech, she looks forward to giving back to the community as a member of the library’s foundation in continuing to bring enriching programs and resources to the community.
Chandrika has a Ph.D in chemistry from Wesleyan University in CT. Her two daughters are graduates of the town’s school system. Chandrika has volunteered with the Friends of the Library, local non-profit organizations and most recently, sharing her Lexington pride facilitating the town’s 250th year celebration. Chandrika enjoys being silly, loves to revel and laugh with friends and fills the remainder of her time reading, playing pickleball, board games, walking and hiking.
Sylvia Han
Sylvia Han is originally from upstate New York, later graduating from Cornell University and Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Professionally, she has over 25 years of institutional asset and wealth management experience and is now a wealth management advisor at Merrill, supporting families with financial planning and investment advice.
Her non-profit volunteer experience includes board and committee positions with the Korean American Organization of Lexington (KOLex) where she serves as President, and Lexington Education Foundation. Outside of Lexington, she has served as a board member of ATASK and The Boston Club and has recently been nominated to serve on the advisory board of the Boston Lyric Opera.
After her family moved to Lexington over 20 years ago, her two sons attended Bridge, Clark, and LHS before going to college. Sylvia enjoys getting together with family, going to concerts, attending barre class, organizing a book club, and hopefully more travel.
Marjan Kamali
Marjan Kamali is the author of The Stationery Shop, a Boston Globe Bestseller and one of NPR’s best books of the year, and Together Tea, a Massachusetts Book award finalist. Her novels have been translated into a dozen languages. Marjan graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has an MBA from Columbia University and an MFA from NYU. Marjan wrote much of both of her novels at a cubicle on the second floor in Cary Library. She teaches writing at Grub Street and lives in Lexington with her family.
Erin Hartel
rin moved to Lexington in September of 2021 from Brentwood, TN where her family lived for three years. Prior to that, her family lived in Mukilteo, WA just north of Seattle where her girls, Caitlin (13) and Lily (11), were born. Erin has a BA in English Literature from the University of Florida and earned her Master's in Education from Old Dominion University. She is a teacher at heart and spent 12 years teaching middle school English in Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts.
Since moving to Lexington, Erin has been heavily involved with volunteering at Fiske Elementary in a variety of capacities. She has also served as the School Liaison for Fiske Elementary as part of the Lexington Education Foundation for the past two years and will be continuing her role at Diamond Middle next year. Finally, Erin volunteers with LexRAP helping refugees and those in need access food and resources. She cares about all people and derives a great deal of joy from serving others. She is an avid reader and loves helping others find new books to love, which is part of the reason she values public libraries so much. Cary Library is an incredible part of the Lexington community, and she is honored to serve on the Board. In her spare time, other than reading, Erin loves to explore the great outdoors and play sports.
Maria Kieslich
Maria grew up in Vermont and attended UVM where she got her degrees in economics and political science. She worked at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC prior to getting her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth school, which included coursework in Seoul, South Korea. Maria came to Boston, worked in Asian international banking and then for 20 years she held executive positions in fintech, nonprofit and edtech startups. She is currently an expert writer on economics and real estate.
Since 1996, Maria has lived in Lexington with her husband and has one adult daughter who attended Lexington public schools. Her community work includes past appointments to the Lexington Communications Advisory Committee and the Town Center committee, and she was a board member for LexMedia and Health Resources In Action. She is a member of Hancock church and volunteers at the Food Pantry. Occasionally she teaches an LCE course on Time Management for Teens. Her favorite pastimes are biking, being a Patriots season ticket holder, reading, travel and scrapbooking
Dipti Lenhart
Dipti and her husband James (JJ) Lenhart have lived in Lexington since 2013 and have been passionate supporters of Cary Library since their children, Arun (13) and Neena (10), were toddlers exploring the Children’s Room!
Dipti is a radiologist at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington and serves as the Section Chief of Abdominal Imaging. She graduated from Harvard University and the New York University School of Medicine. She was a Radiology resident at NYU and then returned to Boston for a fellowship in Abdominal Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. Despite plans to return to New York, she and JJ fell in love with the Boston area and decided to stay.
In the community, she helps lead the Big Backyard program at Fiske and volunteers on Green Team.During her time off, Dipti enjoys traveling and spending time in Lexington — cooking, reading, running on the bike path, and visiting Lexington Center restaurants, shops, and, of course, the library!
Christine Manavian
Christine and her husband Ara Najarian have called Lexington home since 2004. Their boys Andrew and Wyatt attend the Hastings School. In her prior professional career, Christine was a Buyer for multiple retailers in the Boston area in addition to being in Brand Relations for a retail software company. Volunteering in the Lexington community is very important to Christine. She served as President of LexFUN! from 2017-2019, and is currently VP of Board Development and Planning at Hastings. As a family, they enjoy spending time in the kitchen, playing sports, and travelling.
Christine considers Cary Library as one of the cornerstones of Lexington. She served on the CHiRP! Committee this year, which was a great way to meet many of the wonderful people who do so much for Cary.
Laura Mark
Laura is a dedicated member of the Lexington community, having resided in the town for nearly 15 years and raising two sons who attend Lexington Public Schools. With a passion for education and community engagement, Laura has served as a Lexington Town Meeting Member and is deeply invested in the success of the Cary Library.
With nearly 20 years of experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry, Laura brings a wealth of experience managing complex projects to her role on the library board. She currently volunteers as the Vice President of Engagement/Volunteer Partnerships for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and is an active member of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.
Laura holds a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and is actively pursuing an MBA at Johns Hopkins, Carey Business School. Her commitment to lifelong learning and professional development is a testament to her dedication to elevating the mission of the Cary Library Foundation. Laura is committed to ensuring that the Cary Library remains a vital resource for the Lexington community.
Youngshin Park
Youngshin moved to Lexington with her family in 2017. Originally born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, she earned her Bachelor's degree in Nursing from Ewha Womans University and began her professional career as a Registered Nurse at Samsung Medical Center. She later lived in Singapore for 13 years where her husband worked for a global pharmaceutical firm and their three children were born. During their time in Singapore, she experienced firsthand the rich diversity and inclusive culture of the city-state, which further deepened her commitment to fostering community connections and cultural understanding. Youngshin has been deeply involved in local community work. She has served as Vice President of the KOLex(Korean American Organization in Lexington) since 2022, working to promote cultural understanding, support Korean residents, and connect them with local resources. In 2024, she played a key role in organizing Lexington’s very first K-Festival, a vibrant celebration of Korean culture, food, and music that brought together community members of all backgrounds. In addition to her community leadership, Youngshin works as a tutor at Middlesex Community College, where she frequently supports immigrant students in building confidence and strengthening their academic skills. Her own journey across countries has given her deep empathy for immigrants, and she is passionate about helping them navigate new environments, overcome language and cultural barriers, and thrive in their pursuit of happiness in their new home. Her two older children attended Bowman Elementary, Jonas Clarke Middle School, and Lexington High School before heading off to college; her youngest currently attends Lexington High School. In her free time, Youngshin enjoys dancing, cooking, and participating in a book club—activities that allow her to connect with others, continue learning, and celebrate culture in everyday life.
Elizabeth Xu
Elizabeth moved to Lexington in 2007 with her husband and son. She has since become a dedicated community leader and cultural advocate, playing an active role in enriching the town’s civic and cultural life. She currently serves on the Board of the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL), where she chairs both the Cultural Committee and the Communications & Outreach Committee. Her leadership has brought to life signature projects such as the Immigration Storytelling and Art Exhibition, the Discover Lexington bilingual e-magazine—recognized by the Massachusetts Cultural Council—and Asian festival celebrations including the Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Elizabeth is also a valued member of several town committees, including the Town Council of Arts and the Tourism Committee, and has co-chaired major events for the Town Celebrations Committee. She sits on the Board of the Lexington Lyceum Advocate and serves as Chair of Marketing & Outreach for the New Legacy Cultural Center. Most recently, she co-founded the Dragon Tales Foundation, where she helped launch the International Chinese Original IP Film Festival.
Professionally, Elizabeth brings over 20 years of experience in enterprise software development, with a deep focus on infrastructure and backend systems. She also has a strong background in drug discovery, with six years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. More recently, Elizabeth has been exploring the use of artificial intelligence to bring history to life—merging technology and storytelling to create immersive cultural experiences. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Boston University and an M.S. in Computer Science from UMass Boston.
In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys gardening, reading, writing, and painting. She is also an avid backpack traveler with a deep curiosity for exploring diverse cultures and histories
Mary Ann Sorel, Executive Director
Mary Ann has been an active member of the Lexington community for over 17 years, along with her husband and three children, two of whom are now in college. She has been co-chair and board member of the Community Endowment of Lexington where she led their development efforts and helped the organization through the pandemic. Mary Ann also has been a longstanding board member of the International School of Boston, as well as former president of the Lexington Newcomers Club. Mary Ann is a lawyer who practiced corporate law in large firms in New York City (including as a Junior Partner at WilmerHale) and in London, UK. She maintains her New York State bar membership. She graduated with a BA in English Literature and Economics from Brown University, and received her JD from the University of Michigan Law School. In her spare time when she isn't organizing the family calendar, Mary Ann enjoys reading, especially news journals, listening to music, and biking on the Minuteman Path.