Speakers

Cristina Iannarino is the Children's Book and Gift Buyer at Books on the Square, Providence's leading independent bookstore since 1992. As a Bronx-born, first-generation American, she graduated summa cum laude in cursu honorum from Fordham University's Honors Program with a B.A. in History and Italian Studies in 2017. In 2022, she graduated with a M.A. in Italian Studies from Brown University with an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship from the Cogut Insitute for the Humanities. Cristina's research specialized in the history of early modern childhood, the birth of children's literature, and the humanist education of women alongside their cultural achievements.

In the world of modern children's literature at Books on the Square, Cristina cultivates, maintains, and expands her knowledge of readership and industry trends for readers from ages 0-18, collaborating often with publishers to follow the children's market and recent acquisitions. For the store, she curates frontlist and backlist titles catering to the interests of young readers in our community, programs special author events, performs Storytime once a week, and designs digital and print marketing campaigns to encourage young readers. Cristina is committed to serving our diverse community, especially the children and families that have been historically underserved and underrepresented. To that end, Cristina engages in community outreach whenever possible by hosting events, celebrating and collaborating with local authors and illustrators, and maintaining partnerships with local schools, libraries, charities, and nonprofits such as the Providence Rotary Club, Books are Wings, the Rhode Island Center for the Book, and the Providence Parks Department. 

Robin Singer is the secretary of the Rotary Club of Falmouth, Cape Cod and on the Board of Directors.   She joined Rotary after retiring from teaching math at Sturgis Public Charter School in 2019.  She had previously spent 20 years at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she was a research engineer.   

In 2006, while working, Robin also began volunteering for an NGO called Her Future Coalition, which has helped more than 5000 girls and young women who have been rescued from slavery in brothels or are at high risk of being trafficked.   HFC provides shelter, vocational training, mental health services, and education, so that each girl or woman can become self-sustaining and realize her dreams.   

Robin has led the anti-trafficking subcommittee of the Falmouth Rotary Club as they have provided funding for Learning Centers in Nepal and India and Kenya. Concentrating on the needs in Nepal, they have provided a library, computer lab, solar power, solar hot water, funding for a dance troupe, lessons in accounting (Tally), furnishings, school supplies and fees, and more at a hostel in the Himalayan mountains, to educate at-risk girls.  Her committee teaches over zoom 6 times per week, to help girls, who were denied earlier education, catch up.  A year ago, she spent 7 weeks in Nepal teaching in person.

She is a member of the Environment and Sustainability Rotary Action Group, ESRAG, and the Rotary Action Group Against Slavery.