Staff
GILDA BRUCKMAN (Co-Director) was one of the founders of New Words Bookstore in 1974 and continued as book buyer and part of the managerial team for 28 years. She has been President of New Words, Inc. for most of that time and was President of New Words Live from 1997 to 2003. She has also been working as a writing tutor for undergraduate and graduate students at Cambridge College since 2003. She has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Boston University and a fifth degree black belt in Aikido (a Japanese martial art), which she has studied since 1972 and which she teaches. She served for four years (1996-2000) on the Board of Directors of Project 10 East, Inc., a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender advocacy and support organization for students in Massachusetts. She also served on the Advisory Council of the New England Booksellers Association (1993-1999), and on the Steering Committee of the national Feminist Bookstore Network (1997-2002). Awards include the Independent Spirit Award (1999) from the Astraea Foundation, New York, and a Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge Peace Commission (1998). Email Gilda:gbruckman@centerfornewwords.org
JACLYN FRIEDMAN (Program Director) has been the Program Director for CNW/New Words Live since January 2000. She is a poet and performance artist whose writing can be found at PW.org and PoetsAgainstTheWar.org, in Pedestal Magazine, the Underwood Review, Sojourner, and other publications, as well as on stages across New England and New York. Friedman is the former Program Director for LiveSafe, a non-profit safety training organization (now part of IMPACT Boston). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, and is the recipient of a 2001 Cambridge Poetry Award, a 2004 Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, and a 2005 Literature Grant from the Somerville Arts Council. Her website can be found at www.jaclynfriedman.com. Email Jaclyn: jfriedman@centerfornewwords.org
JONI SEAGER (Co-Director) has been a co-owner of New Words Bookstore since 1988, and has been particularly active in the development and planning process for the Center for New Words. She is also Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. She is the author of several books, including Earth Follies: Coming to Feminist Terms With the Global Environmental Crisis and three editions of the State of Women in the World Atlas. She is a co-founder of the Committee on Women, Population, and Environment, an international coalition of activists and scholars. She has extensive academic management and administration experience through appointments at the University of Maine, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Vermont. She has managed several large grant projects and multi-disciplinary research efforts, including work with the National Science Foundation, the Vermont Humanities Council, and the Massachusetts Humanities Council. Email Joni:jseager@centerfornewwords.org
LAURA ZIMMERMAN (Co-Director) has been an owner and part of the managerial team for New Words Bookstore since 1988, specializing in both bookbuying and personnel. During that time, she has been an officer on the Board of Directors for New Words, Inc., and, since 1997, an officer for New Words Live. In 2002, she co-founded the Center for New Words. Since 1990, she has also co-chaired Boston’s Tibetan Women’s Association, serving as an advocate for newly-arrived Tibetan immigrant women and their families and mobilizing American grassroots support for Tibetan autonomy. She also served for seven years as Poetry Editor for Sojourner, the women’s national newspaper. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she formerly worked extensively with troubled adolescents at McLean Hospital and taught in the mental health departments of Middlesex and North Shore Community College. She co-directed New Hampshire’s first group home for adolescent foster care, and also co-founded the Keene Learning Community, an alternative high school in Keene, New Hampshire. Email Laura:lzimmerman@centerfornewwords.org
