Staff

Karen Stinchfield has been Director of Cushman Library since 2004. Having grown up on Center Street, Cushman and the Bernardston community have long held her heart.

Karen was an elementary school librarian for twelve years, as well as a children’s library assistant, and she holds a Master of Education with a concentration in Curriculum and Learning and a specialization in Creative Arts in Learning.

When not working, Karen loves to swim, write, sing, sculpt, paint, camp, garden, refinish furniture, binge watch SciFi and Fantasy, and nap with her cats ~ Persephone, Idyllic, and Phineaus.

Karen volunteers as artist liaison for Scarecrow in the Park, which enables her to support local artists and craftspeople as well as the Bernardston Kiwanis, of which her father was a long-time member.

Mary McGinn and her husband raised their two sons in Bernardston and consider Cushman Library a cherished friend.

Mary graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Elementary Education. She enjoyed working with people as a real estate agent and then again as a teacher.

Besides being an avid reader, she also enjoys gardening, photography, history, antiques, and architecture.

Mary currently lives in Greenfield with her dog Leala Lou, and looks forward to working with old friends and new.

Peggy Shippa grew up in Franklin County and is a mom of three sons and grandmother of six. They have nicknamed her “their Mimi.”

Peggy loves reading and sharing that love with her grandchildren, reading the books she saved over the years from their fathers’ childhood, with new ones always being added.

Cushman Library has always been special to Peggy, because she remembers her Grammy Phelps bringing her to the library at a young age.

In her free time, when not reading, she also enjoys baking, photography, growing flowers and herbs, music, and escaping to the coast for “ocean therapy” and seafood. She is also a big New England sports fan.

Audrey and her family settled in Bernardston in 2020. While homeschooling her son they make frequent trips to Cushman Library.

Encouraged by her grandmother, she has been an avid reader since childhood. Her favorite genres include Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Historical Fiction.

She likes to spend her free time making jewelry and working in her vegetable garden.