ABOUT US

Kit Kopec, First Vice President

Kit (he/they) is a recent Albuquerque transplant but a lifelong library lover. He holds an MS in Cultural Foundations of Education from UW Milwaukee. Kit has built skills in data analysis, business process optimization, and publishing operations through work with the American Library Association, Girls Rock! Chicago, the Peggy Lillis Foundation, and Hope House of Milwaukee. Kit deeply values intellectual freedom, mutual aid, and free access to information. You might also find him at art markets around Albuquerque with his spouse, Ann, and their dog, Minnie. 

Morgan Langer, Second Vice President

Morgan grew up in central and northern New Jersey and attended Rutgers University, where he earned a B.A. in Urban Studies and an M.A. in Criminal Justice. In 2007, he moved to Albuquerque and loves living here. He recently retired from a 28-year career in federal law enforcement. He has been a volunteer with the Friends of the Public Library since August 2023. He considers libraries to be an essential institution and strongly believes in their mission.

Karen Nordquist, Treasurer
Karen is a longtime Albuquerque resident. She is a Certified Public Accountant with accounting degrees from the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University. Her family has always actively used the library and participated in the summer reading program and concerts. Her family still attends the monthly Friends book sales and goes home with bags of “treasures.” She and her husband, Doug, have supported the Friends for a number of years and have seen firsthand the difference the Friends makes in our libraries and community.

Jessica Langer, Secretary

Jessica graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in English Literature. She moved to New Mexico in 2007 and fell in love with the open spaces and blue skies of the desert. She found her calling for working with volunteers when she joined the Animal Humane New Mexico team as a volunteer in 2009 and was hired as Volunteer Coordinator in 2010. She was promoted to Volunteer Manager in 2014, a position she held until her retirement in 2020. As part of the volunteer team, Jessica facilitated streamlining and simplifying the onboarding process for new volunteers and helped to increase retention rates and volunteer satisfaction. In her spare time, she enjoys astonishing people by knowing the lyrics to nearly every 1980s song (and singing along…badly), reading (of course), knitting, and spending time with her husband and their herd of rescue cats. She strongly believes in the power of libraries to promote kindness, empathy, and equality.

Peter Ives, Director At Large

Peter came to Albuquerque from Roswell to attend UNM and graduated in Geography and History. He served in USAF in the UK, and when he returned to Albuquerque, he worked at Zimmerman Library in the government publications and maps department. Peter received an M.S. in Library & Information Science at the University of Illinois and was hired as a librarian in the UNM business and economics collection. After retiring, he has focused on building his own multi-thousand volume library of mostly SW history, roadside history, art, and poetry.

Jennifer Abbots, Administrative Coordinator
Jennifer began her career in books as a teen page in her hometown library in CT. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing & Women's Studies from the City University of New York and spent over a decade in public relations in the publishing industry, crafting communications for best-selling authors such as Sesame Street star Sonia Manzano and top brands such as How to Train Your Dragon. For most of her adult life, Jennifer lived in the New York City metro-area, and she remains a Brooklynite at heart. Jennifer's father has lived in NM since the 1970s and she spent significant time here as a child, moving to Albuquerque in 2018 to help out her family. She is a strong believer in building communities around shared values and a strong supporter of vegan cheesecake.