The New York Public Library Names Three New Trustees

Dr. Anthony Appiah, Beth Kojima and George Stephanopoulos Elected To Join The Library’s Board

MAY 21 – The New York Public Library’s Board of Trustees elected three new members at its meeting today – Dr. Anthony Appiah, Beth Kojima and George Stephanopoulos. 

“The Board of Trustees is very pleased to welcome these strong leaders in scholarship, philanthropy and civic engagement,” said New York Public Library Chairman Neil L. Rudenstine. “We look forward to having them as members of the Board, and to their contributions to our discussions and actions as we move forward.”

"I am honored to work alongside such a distinguished and committed Board of Trustees, whose members continue the proud tradition of excellent stewardship at one of the world's great institutions,” said Library President Tony Marx. “At a time when people are accessing information in new and exciting ways, the Library's leadership and vision are vital. These new Trustees will help to ensure that tradition moving forward, and help the Library meet the ever-expanding needs of the Library’s users in New York City and around the globe."

Dr. Anthony Appiah has been Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University since January 2014, where he teaches in New York, Abu Dhabi, and the university’s other international sites. Through 2013, he was the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and a member of the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He has worked in philosophy of mind and language, ethics, and political philosophy as well as in African and African-American studies. He is the author of several books, including The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen (2010); Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006); and The Ethics of Identity (2005), and has also published three mystery novels. Before joining Princeton’s faculty in 2002, Dr. Appiah was the Charles H. Carswell Professor of African-American Studies at Harvard University, where he was also a member of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute, associate director of the Black Fiction Project, and a member of the education faculty, among other roles. Dr. Appiah, who grew up in Ghana and England, also spent time at Yale, Cornell University, Duke University and Fordham University. He received his BA (1975), MA (1980), and PhD (1982) degrees from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Appiah is a member of the Boards of ArtStor and the American Council of Learned Societies and chair of the board of scholars at Facing History and Ourselves, where he is also a trustee. He has also served on the selection committee of The New York Public Library’s Cullman Center since 2008. In December 2013, he was elected second vice president of the Modern Language Association, where he will be first vice president in 2015 and president in 2016. 

Beth Kojima is a partner in TPG Axon Capital Management, serving as director of investor relations and strategy. She previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Mrs. Kojima serves on the board of Playwrights Horizons, where she was founding co-chair of Generation PH, its young members group. She will be joining Duke’s Trinity College Board of Visitors and is on the Children’s Advisory Council at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Mrs. Kojima graduated from Duke University (1999) and received her MBA from Columbia Business School. Along with her husband, Chris Kojima, a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs, she is a Co-Chair of The New York Public Library’s President’s Council and have been President’s Council Members since 2011; they joined Young Lions in 2002. Mrs. Kojima is a member of the Library Council Steering Committee and has been a co-chair of several NYPL events, including the Family Benefit, and Vice Chair of the Spring Dinner for Education (2012). The Kojimas have generously supported Children’s and Young Adult Programs at the Library. 

George Stephanopoulos serves as anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America” and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," and is co-anchor of special events at ABC. Mr. Stephanopoulos is also the network's chief political correspondent, reporting on political and policy stories for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms. He began his career in Washington, DC, as an aide to Ohio Congressman Ed Feighan before working on the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis and as executive floor assistant to House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt. In 1991, Mr. Stephanopoulos joined the Democratic Presidential campaign of President Bill Clinton as deputy campaign manager for communications. Following President Clinton's victory in 1992, Mr. Stephanopoulos served as the Senior Advisor 1992, Mr. Stephanopoulos served as the Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. After President Clinton's reelection in 1996, Mr. Stephanopoulos resigned from his team and moved to New York City, where he worked as a professor of government at Columbia University (1997-98) and joined ABC News in 1997. He was named chief Washington correspondent in 2005. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller All Too Human: A Political Education (1999), a chronicle of his experiences with the Clinton campaign and White House. He won an Emmy award for his coverage of the 2009 presidential inauguration and his "On the Trail" series was honored with the Walter Cronkite Award for Political Journalism in 2007 and 2009. Mr. Stephanopoulos is a trustee of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a policy and education organization located in Washington, DC, and a director of the Broadcasters Foundation of America. He is a founding member of The Next Generation Initiative, a leadership program aimed at getting students involved in public affairs. Mr. Stephanopoulos is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received his undergraduate degree in political science from Columbia University and his master’s degree in theology from Balliol College, Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. 

About The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 91 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library serves more than 18 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.