Mayor de Blasio Appoints Martha Baker to the Queens Borough Public Library Board of Trustees

September 2, 2014

NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced the appointment of Martha Baker to the Queens Borough Public Library Board of Trustees.

Baker, a resident of Queens, is a lifelong advocate for the advancement of women. The founder of Equity in Education and Employment, which provides program design, advocacy and training to improve opportunities for women and girls, Baker has worked locally and at the national level to secure leave policies that support working families and promote women in the workplace.

Baker is Mayor de Blasio's second appointment to the board, following Jukay Hsu's appointment in August. The Queens Library serves 2.3 million people from 62 locations, as well as seven Adult Learning Centers and two Family Literacy Centers. The library circulates among the highest number of books and other library materials in the country, and is home to one of the largest collections in the United States.

About Martha Baker

Baker is the founder of Equity in Education and Employment and a consultant to and on the steering committee of the NY Paid Family Leave Insurance Campaign.

A former executive director and CEO at Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW), Baker authored the report "Vocational Education: Opportunities for Young Women." While at NEW, Baker was appointed to the City's Department of Education Steering Committee to Restructure Career Technical Education. In 2007, Baker coordinated a conference focusing on integrating women into the building, construction and allied trades industries.

Baker has also worked as the deputy director of operations at the New York State Workers Compensation Board and served in the Dinkins administration as the executive director of the Commission on the Status of Women, where she coordinated a year-long study on sexual harassment and published works on preventing it at college campuses and in the municipal workplace.

Baker is a recipient of the Susan B. Anthony Leadership Award and a founding board member of the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee. She and her husband live in Fresh Meadows and have two adult children, who were educated in the Queens public school system.