2026 Moderators
Mary Lynn Becza is the assistant director of the Morristown & Morris Township Library. She is a graduate of Douglass College and received her Master’s Degree from Rutgers University School of Information and Library Science. Mary Lynn can often be found at the library recommending her favorite new titles to patrons.
Tara Bernie is the founder and owner of TB Yoga House, a boutique yoga and strength studio in the heart of Morristown, New Jersey. She is also the creator of tbyhToGo, an on-demand library of shorter yoga and strength classes designed to meet people where they are, making consistent movement more accessible.
Before opening TB Yoga House, Tara spent more than 30 years in the news and entertainment industry as an Emmy® award-winning senior correspondent and five-time Emmy®-nominated senior producer. While her past career sharpened her voice and leadership, it was her personal journey that ultimately led her to yoga as a path to healing and resilience.
Having overcome profound life challenges, including becoming a young widow, surviving cancer, and rebuilding her life during periods of unemployment, Tara believes deeply in the power of movement, breath, and community to support transformation—work she now shares with others through her teachings. TB Yoga House was created as a space where healing, support, and sustainable strength are prioritized.
Tara is a proud mom to her daughters, Grace and Layla, and her beloved cat, Gregg.
Tynisha Coleman is a book nerd who devours science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, and thrillers whenever she can steal a moment. On the Morristown Festival of Books programming committee and a returning moderator, she believes the best stories offer wonder, danger, and irresistible ideas to debate afterward. Elsewhere, Tynisha leads Exalt Consulting, her leadership development firm, and lectures at Rutgers University. She is eager to talk magic, reinvention, and heroines who refuse to follow the script.
Lesley Draper is a partner, wealth advisor with Corient a global wealth management firm. She is responsible for managing client relationships and advising families and individuals on wealth transfer, tax planning and investment management. Lesley is passionate about giving back and focuses a portion of her practice on nonprofit management and fiduciary oversight. She currently serves on the board and investment committee for Friends of Acadia in Bar Harbor, ME and P.G. Chambers School in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, where she is currently board chair. She previously served on the boards of the Morristown Festival of Books and Impact 100 Garden State. She received her B.S. degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional and a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA). Prior to joining Corient, Lesley was a vice president at Citi Private Bank and subsequently spent eleven years at U.S. Trust Company of New York in the Financial Planning and Family Wealth departments.
Cherise Fisher began her career in publishing at Dell Publishing, Random House Publishing Group’s oldest imprint. Over the course of her thirty-year career, Cherise edited and published several national bestselling and award-winning authors, including George Lopez, Nelson George, Victoria Christopher Murray, and Tony Parsons as an acquiring editor at Simon & Schuster and Penguin. In 2014, she answered the call to agenting, and represents several bestselling, award-winning authors who regularly push boundaries in both fiction and non-fiction. Among her highly curated list of clients are New York Times bestselling authors, Tia Williams and Sadeqa Johnson, USA Today bestselling author, Dave Tarnowski, and the critically acclaimed Dr. Treva Lindsey and Alishia McCullough.
Cherise represents both fiction and non-fiction authors. She is interested in working with novelists who have multiple compulsively readable yarns in their head (both historical and contemporary), memoirists who showcase the diversity of human experience, and non-fiction writers who seek to provoke, inspire, and educate on a variety of topics such as health and wellness, racial identity, Christianity and spirituality, pop culture, humor, and African American history.
A frequent workshop facilitator, panelist and keynote speaker at various writers’ conferences, Cherise is also an active member of the American Association of Literary Agents. Her mission is to create a legacy of books that are relevant, enduring, and shift our culture toward the greater good.
Carol Fitzgerald is the president of The Book Report Network. The company’s websites, Bookreporter.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com — have become the gathering places for a large and devoted community of booklovers since 1996.
Carol is known for her in-depth author interviews. She hosts the “Bookreporter Talks To” video/podcast series which now has more than 240 author interviews, as well as “Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books,” a monthly book preview program, and the “Bookaccino Live” Book Group series, a book group discussion program with featured authors.
Darcey Gohring is the founder of The Writer’s Corner, a thriving online writing community with members across the United States, and curates the Substack publication Wisdom & Words. In this role, Darcey has interviewed countless bestselling authors, editors, and publishing experts. Darcey also leads writing workshops and retreats, and has served as a keynote speaker for literary events nationwide. Her work has appeared in dozens of publications. She was a contributing author to the anthology Corona City: Voices From an Epicenter, and recently completed a novel inspired by her experience being diagnosed with breast cancer in the early weeks of the pandemic.
Karen Gruenberg is a media executive who, drawing on her career building content for children, co-founded Greater Newark Tennis and Education (GNTE), a Newark nonprofit providing free tennis and educational programs to youth, where she has served as Board Chair since 2022. She spent nearly twenty years at Sesame Workshop, rising to executive vice president of content and distribution, where she shepherded Sesame Street and launched iconic properties including Dragon Tales and The Electric Company, and drove partnerships that created the Noggin and Sprout cable channels. She went on to serve as chief content officer at GoNoodle, and later co-founded S’more Ideas before advising the tech platform Hellosaurus. Karen is a founding board member of the Morristown Festival of Books, where she will moderate the session on The Cruelest Game.
Jordan Hernandez is the founder and curator behind Completely Booked, a celebrated literary movement championing diverse voices. Her multi-platform community has earned national recognition, with features on Oprah’s Book Club and The Today Show. Completely Booked includes a book club with live author discussions, engaging events, and social media platforms. Beyond this work, Jordan serves as director of content marketing, contributes to The Local Girl Media, and actively advocates for fitness and community service initiatives.
Christine A. Krahling is an award-winning writer, a podcast host, and author of The Reading Life on Substack. Her article, “7 Steps to a Successful Book Club” received a Writer’s Digest Competition Top 100 Honorable Mention. She’s interviewed Joan Lunden, Adriana Trigiani, and world-renowned meditation teacher Bob Roth, among others. Christine believes there is almost nothing a good cupcake can’t fix, and while she’s met many celebrities over the years, she’s still chasing Bruce Springsteen.
Adriana Ladouceur is the creator behind Bring Me Books, a literary platform dedicated to amplifying black literature, nonfiction, and stories that challenge the way we think. She has built a community of nearly 50,000 readers who believe that books are tools for liberation. She has interviewed New York Times bestselling authors and entertainers, been featured in Fox 2 News and Sirius XM Radio and partnered with major publishers that center marginalized voices, history, and culture.
By day, she is an elementary school principal, but by design she is the founder of Truth Club, her signature nonfiction book recommendation series, where she curates thought-provoking recommendations that encourage readers to think more critically about identity and the world around us. Known for her signature blend of humor, honesty, and intellectual curiosity, Adriana has become a trusted voice in the book community, helping readers discover works that educate, challenge, and inspire.
Chad E. Leinaweaver is the director of the Morristown & Morris Township Library, a position he has held since 2016. He currently serves on the board for the Morristown Festival of Books and has previously served as the President of MAIN, a consortium of libraries in northern New Jersey. Previously, Chad served as the head of the special collections division of the Newark Public Library, and the director for the library and museum collections for The New Jersey Historical Society. In 2023 Chad wrote That Our Daughters May Be as Cornerstones: A History of Irving College, has authored portions of the Dictionary of New Jersey History, previously served as the chair of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Author Awards and has been an archival consultant and on the advisory board for the Caucus Archival Projects Evaluation Service (CAPES).
David Levithan has worked as an editor on The Baby-sitters Club for over thirty years. He helped compile The Complete Guide to the Baby-sitters Club and then went on to write a few novels of his own.
Judith Lindbergh’s award-winning novel, Akmaral, follows a nomad woman warrior on the ancient Asian steppes. Her debut, The Thrall’s Tale, about women in Viking Age Greenland, was an IndieBound Pick and praised by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks. She has published with the Smithsonian and provided expert commentary for History Channel documentaries. Judith received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is the Founder/Director of The Writers Circle.
Julie Maloney is a writer, poet, and founder/director of the international literary organization called Women Reading Aloud. Devoted to the support of women’s voices, she has led thirty-two domestic and international writing retreats. Her debut novel, A Matter of Chance, won the Eric Hoffer Book Award for fiction in 2019. Her new novel, The Horse with a Blue Eye, will be published in April 2027.
In 2007 Maryann McFadden “won the literary lottery” according to writing blogs when her previously self-published novel, The Richest Season, sold at auction to Hyperion Books. She has also written Cape Cod Light, The Book Lover, The Cemetery Keeper’s Wife (historical fiction set in her hometown), and The Christmas Star. Her novels have been chosen as ABA Indie Next Picks and translated into multiple languages. Her unusual publishing journey has inspired many aspiring authors.
Patrick J. McGuinn is professor of political science and education at Drew University. He is the author of No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy, 1965-2005, and the co-editor of “The Convergence of K-12 and Higher Education: Policies and Programs in a Changing Era” and “Education Governance for the 21st Century: Overcoming the Structural Barriers to School Reform.” Patrick has produced policy reports for the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress, and the New America Foundation. He is a regular commentator on education policy and politics in the national media and was recognized as one of the nation’s top Edu-Scholars by Education Week ten times.
Mary Ann Naples is the chief operating officer and publisher of Publishers Marketplace, the essential news and information service for publishing industry professionals, and created the Buzz Books Official Substack. Previously, she was a publisher at the Hachette Book Group, The Walt Disney Company, and Rodale. Naples has also had extensive experience in other areas of publishing including agenting and startups, and she began her career in editorial.
Kathleen Sanderson has always been in the cooking world. She graduated from the California Academy in 1978 and worked as a chef at various bay area restaurants before heading east to work as the personal chef for the Robert Kennedy Family. She then moved to New York City to join the test kitchen staff at Restaurant Business magazine where she was the food features editor and became the test kitchen director. She began teaching in New York City at the New School and later the New York Restaurant School and Peter Kumps (now ICE) Today she teaches, develops recipes for various food companies and eats a good meal whenever she can!
Jacob Soule teaches English and Film Studies at Drew University, where for several years he has taught a course on crime fiction. He received his PhD in Literature from Duke University in 2019. His scholarly criticism has appeared in academic journals, including Novel: A Forum on Fiction and Contemporary Literature. He is currently working on a project on Alfred Hitchcock and hopes to find something new to say about his films.
Carol Van Den Hende is an award-winning author who pens stories of resilience and hope. Her Goodbye, Orchid series draws from her Chinese American heritage, and has won forty literary and design awards, including the American Fiction Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction First Novel Award, and Royal Dragonfly Awards for Cultural Diversity and Disability Awareness.
Buzzfeed, Parade, and Travel+Leisure named Carol’s books a most anticipated read. Woman’s World and Glamour Magazine recommended her “modern, important take on the power of love.”
Carol’s mission is unlocking optimism as a writer, speaker, strategist, executive, and Board member. One secret to her good fortune? Her humorous hubby and twins, who prove that love really does conquer all.
Finn Wentworth is a lifelong New Jersey resident and has served as a leader in both national
and local organizations to serve his communities. He is a member of the New Jersey Hall
of Fame, has served as a Board member of the New York Yankees, New Jersey Devils and
the NBA, and a co-founder of the YES Network. He currently serves on the Board of Atlantic
Health Systems, and formerly as chairman led the Morristown Medical Center Foundation in
their Campaign 360 raising over $110 million of philanthropy to serve the local community.
He was a co-founder of the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund, raising $67 million of private
donations to support the most vulnerable during COVID. A past Board member of both the
Geraldine Rockefeller Foundation and the Historic Morristown Green.
He and his wife, Kim, a former Morris County Parks Commissioner, have been involved in
conservation leading the expansion of Loantaka Park, and currently the creation of a new
county 1,200-acre park at the Boonton Reservoir, as well as being committee members for
the Friends of Jockey Hollow.
Finn is a graduate of Morristown Beard School and Lehigh University, where he served as a
Trustee for both schools. An avid hiker, he has summited all forty-eight continental U.S. State
Highpoints, plus Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (elevation 19,341’) and Aconcagua in Argentina
(22,828’) with his sons Mark and Grant.
Kate White is the NY Times and #1 Amazon charts bestselling author of nineteen novels of suspense: eight Bailey Weggins mysteries and eleven psychological thrillers, including most recently, I Came Back for You. For fourteen years Kate served as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan. Though she loved her magazine career, she decided to leave thirteen years ago to concentrate full-time on another passion: writing suspense fiction. She is also the author of several bestselling career books, including the ground-breaking Wall Street Journal bestseller, Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do. Her books have been published in over 30 countries.
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