Meet the Commissioners
The Commission consists of 15 seats, appointed by the Mayor and Council. To join, you must apply via the City of Oakland Boards & Commissions form on Granicus (look for the green "Apply" button on top right of page).
Click on the tabs to the left to learn more about our current Commissioners.
Questions?
Email Kere Gonzales, Executive Assistant to the Director of the Oakland Public Library.
Alex Weinberg (he/him/his)
3/1/2023 - 2/28/2026 (First Term)
Alex Weinberg is a graduate student at UC Berkeley, where he is studying Real Estate and Finance with an emphasis on socially responsible urban development. In his personal life, he enjoys exploring the Oakland hills and engaging with the public spaces and cultural institutions that make the East Bay special. Alex has lived in the Bay Area since 2018 and his local library branch is Rockridge.
Alternier Cook (she/her/hers)
11/14/21 - 11/13/24
Alternier Baker Cook was appointed to the LAC 11/14/2018 to represent District 3. She holds a B.S. Degree in Applied Social Sciences from S.U.N.Y. (State University of New York) at Binghamton and an MSW Degree from Cal-State Long Beach.
She is a member of the City of Oakland Community Development Block Grant Commission, appointed January 2019. She is also the Chair of the Friends of the Hoover Durant Public Library (FOHDPL). She is also a member of the Hoover Foster Residential Action Council and the City of Oakland Police Department Beat 6X Crime Prevention Council Steering Committee.
Alternier is a long time City of Oakland resident, she enjoys spending time with her family, listening to jazz, and exploring fashion. She likes to read mysteries by and about Black people and historical novels about Hispanic and Asian cultures.
Alternier is a longtime resident of District 3.
Angelica Valentine (she/her/hers)
10/16/20 - 10/15/23 (Second Term)
Angelica Valentine is a Senior Writer at Carta. She has extensive marketing experience across startups and consultancies, including past roles at data.ai and Mach49. She holds a BA in Sociology and Race and Ethnic Studies from Columbia University in New York City.
Valentine is an Oakland native who enjoys reading, hiking, and baking in her spare time.
Ayushi Roy (she/her/hers)
11/17/21 - 11/16/24 (Second Term)
Ayushi Roy is a proud resident of Oakland's District 1. She enjoys giving back to her city by serving as a Commissioner for the Oakland Public Library, as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate for foster youth, and as a public gardener. By day, she serves the federal General Services Administration as the Director of State & Local Government Technology.
In her personal time, Roy runs a media non-profit focused on civic engagement called We Who Engage and competes in the World Marathon Majors. Previously, she helped build Oakland City Hall's first innovation team, co-founded an SMS hotline for student safety at public universities, and served on the Equity Advisory Committee for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. She is an alumna of Columbia University and MIT, with additional training in conflict mediation.
Bradley L. Boyd (he/him)
3/1/2023 - 2/28/2026 (First Term)
Brad Boyd is an Oakland Public Library Commissioner, Lecturer and Researcher at Stanford University, and veteran of the U.S. Army and Marines. Born and raised in San Jose, California Brad attended De Anza Community College, earned a BA in anthropology at the University of California at Irvine, and a Masters in International Politics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. His military career spanned the Central and Western Pacific, Europe, Central and East Asia, the Middle East, and South America.
Brittany Rae Buckmire (she/her/hers)
6/24/2022 - 6/23/2025 (First Term)
Brittany Rae Buckmire is a proud resident of District 3 since 2015 and is excited to serve in her first term on the commission. A lifelong lover of books and libraries, she is also an acting Chair Member of the Friends of Hoover Durant Public Library (FOHDPL) and a member of the Hoover Foster Residence Action Council. Brittany Rae is a Philadelphia native and graduated from Philadelphia University in 2015 with a BA in Fashion Industry Management. Professionally, she works in the fashion/retail industry and personally, she enjoys dance, karaoke, exploring the outdoors and time with loved ones.
Caleb Smith (he/him/his)
11/14/20 - 11/13/23 (Second Term)
Caleb Smith is a life-long Oakland resident and OUSD graduate who first got involved in library activism as a member of the Youth Leadership Council (the city-wide teen advisory board for the OPL). He studied Public Policy in college and currently works in local government elsewhere in the Bay Area, mostly on housing but also on other topics.
For fun, Smith enjoys playing bridge with his family, participating in a few other community groups, and (surprise, surprise) reading.
Carolyn Moskovitz (she/her/hers)
11/13/21 - 11/12/24 (Second Term)
Carolyn Moskovitz was a librarian for 40 years at the Alameda County Library. She was a Teen Librarian, a Jails Librarian and the first Director of the County Library’s Adult Literacy Program. Before retirement she was able to lead a team to write and get funded a $14 million-dollar grant to build the new Castro Valley Library.
Moskovitz is enjoying her work on the Commission very much, especially appreciating the wonderful colleagues and Library leadership. Her major interest is working towards a new replacement for the Main downtown library.
Cathy Smith (she/her/hers)
06/19/21 - 01/18/24 (Second Term)
Cathy Smith has been a member of the Library Advisory Commission since summer of 2018. She is trained as a biologist having received a PhD from Columbia University. After completing her degree, she went on to study the DNA damage response further as a post-doctoral researcher at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. She left research behind when she moved to Oakland in 2014 and now uses her degree for the management and licensing of UCSF's emerging technologies in the Office of Innovation Ventures.
In her spare time, Smith enjoys reading, hiking Oakland's many beautiful trails, and spending time with her husband and cat.
Chiye Azuma (she/her/hers)
3/1/2023 - 2/28/2026 (First Term)
Chiye Azuma, ASLA, grew up in New York and Japan but has called Oakland her home for the last 28 years. Prior to retiring in late 2020, she served as project manager in facilities design and construction with several different public agencies in the Bay Area. In her last job, she was the Green Schoolyard Program Manager for the San Francisco Unified School District’s Bond Program. A longtime resident of East Oakland, Chiye continues to volunteer with the Elmhurst Branch Library, an association that's allowed her to give back and stay involved with her local community.
Chiye graduated from Brown University with an AB in Independent Studies/Sociolinguistics, and UCLA, where she studied landscape architecture. Her first library card was from the Briarwood Branch of the Queens Public Library in New York.
Cristina Tostado (she/her/hers)
10/5/2020 - 10/4/2023 (First Term)
Cristina Tostado, aka Tina from the Town, was born and raised in East Oakland and currently lives in Oakland District 2.
She enjoys giving back to her city by serving as a commissioner for the Oakland Public Library, a board member for the Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce, and a volunteer liaison for Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Cristina has a BA degree in Communications and Advertising from Cal State East Bay. In her personal time Cristina loves to travel the world, try different foods, comedy shows, sports and to spend time with family and friends.
Karen Roye (she/her/hers)
11/14/2022 - 11/13/2025 (Second Term)
Karen Roye is a 30-year Oakland resident of Oakland. She has dedicated her life to public service and advancing the voice and needs of marginalized communities. It is her life's calling.
In her chosen profession, she continues to serve as the director of the San Francisco Department of Child Support Services for almost 20 years, managing operations, budget and finance, statewide legislation, and community outreach. She has also dedicated much of her personal time to volunteerism.
She believes the Oakland Public Library System is a beacon of hope, opportunity, and safety for Oakland's neighborhoods. It serves as a place of community that combats the loneliness and isolation that disenfranchised people experience, a respite for the unhoused people and a place to start a job search, and most importantly, it serves as a place to dream big dreams, learn new skills, and find one’s voice and read, read, read!
Karen Zukor (she/her)
3/1/2023 - 2/28/2026 (First Term)
Karen Zukor has been a resident of Oakland for over 40 years and a business owner in West Oakland for just as long. She is an art conservator, specializing in works on paper, books, and manuscripts, and offers both conservation and preservation treatments. She and her staff not only repair damaged items but provide information in extending the life of an object. Karen has trained many conservation interns for over thirty years, and lectures widely to the general public.
Mary Forte (she/her/hers)
08/19/21 - 08/18/24 (Second Term)
Mary Forte is a lifelong resident of East Oakland She is retired from Chevron Information Technology Company (30 years) after which she owned an It's A Grind Coffee franchise for 7 years in downtown Oakland.
She is the vice chair and treasurer of the Friends of Elmhurst Library. Elmhurst Library is the library she went to growing up. She is also involved in her church, her Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, a member of Block By Block Organizing Network, a member of the Illegal Dumping Local Organizing Committee and an Adopt-A-Spot volunteer.
In her spare time, Forte likes to do jigsaw puzzles, word search puzzles, read, walk and spend time with her family. Most recently Mary is helping at her daughter’s screen printing and embroidery shop, The Olive Street Agency, in East Oakland.