Leadership Team

SEEMA AGHERA, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, COFOUNDER

Seema was raised in Rolla, Missouri to immigrant parents from India. After high school she moved to the East Coast and has lived in New York City since 2004. With a degree in Biomedical Engineering, she has spent her career as a management consultant at Accenture, account manager at a pharmaceutical company, and a program consultant for small businesses. As the child of immigrant parents, travel was limited to trips in the family station wagon. Books, for Seema, opened windows to a world beyond the station wagon road trips, her daily experiences, and childhood home. She still has a box of books from her childhood, her favorite being The Giant Jam Sandwich. She loves the book as it is about a community coming together to solve a problem—wasps invading the town; plus she ate lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a kid! Seema is excited to bring together families and children with the Brooklyn Book Bodega and provide them with an opportunity to dream, imagine, and learn about the world around them. Seema lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three daughters.

REBECCA COHEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COFOUNDER

Rebecca has focused her entire career on education and increasing opportunity for students. After joining Teach For America, she taught secondary school in Baltimore, South Texas, and in Brooklyn which she now calls home. Teacher of the Year in her school district, Rebecca’s students achieved significant academic gains while engaging in experiential, inquiry-based learning. As a kid, Rebecca always had her head stuck in a book. She read anything and everything because books expanded her horizons and gave her exposure to a world beyond her day-to-day experiences. As an educator and mother, she has seen the difference that access to the knowledge found in books and the joy in choosing what to read can do for a child. She cofounded the Brooklyn Book Bodega to foster literacy among children and adolescents through book ownership, choice, and access. In addition to her work with Brooklyn Book Bodega, Rebecca coaches educators and provides academic support to college students. Rebecca lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children.

Staff

CECILIA GOLOMBEK, PROGRAM AND VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Cecilia was born in Argentina and grew up in Baltimore. She studied in Boston and New York, and has called Brooklyn home since 2009. With degrees in History and International Relations, Cecilia has honed her skills in events management and has worked at international organizations facilitating learning exchanges among people from different nations and cultures; now focusing on the web technology aspects that make meetings happen. Volunteering and helping nonprofits thrive is a cornerstone of Cecilia’s life, leading her to found DiviDon--a platform making it easy for people to make donations to hyper-local organizations. While growing up, Cecilia’s parents made sure that she had her own library which was hers to organize (or disorganize) as she pleased. Now, her library and love of books is as big, although slightly more organized. For a year as a volunteer with the Brooklyn Book Bodega and now as staff, she is beyond happy to share this enthusiasm for giving, sharing, and, of course, books with others. Having the opportunity to find the exact right book for a child brings her immense joy!