Executive Director
Corporate Clerk & Board Secretary

Michael A. Pezza Jr.
mpezza@insurancelibrary.org
Ext. 201

Michael Pezza has served as the Executive Director of The Insurance Library since November 2022. He is responsible for all aspects of the Library’s management, operations, and advancement. He also serves as secretary of the board of trustees and clerk of the Library corporation.

Michael has decades of experience as a lawyer. His practice focused primarily on representing domestic and foreign insurers and reinsurers (including underwriting syndicates at Lloyd’s and other London market insurers) or their insureds in a wide range of matters in state and federal courts in Massachusetts and other states. He was for many years a partner at Morrison, Mahoney & Miller (now Morrison Mahoney) after which he was a Senior Counsel in the Boston office of Holland & Knight, where he practiced in the Litigation Section and was a member of the Intellectual Property team and the Media team. He then started his own law and dispute resolution practices, and has served as an insurance arbitrator or referee.

He was on the adjunct faculty at Northeastern University School of Law, where he taught entertainment law for more than ten years. He also was a contributing author in a leading treatise on publishing law, Perle, Williams & Fischer on Publishing Law, published by Wolters Kluwer.

Michael is a past Vice Chair of the Media, Privacy & Defamation Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s Tort & Insurance Practice Section. He is a member of the CPCU Society and its Boston chapter.

Michael holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University, where he remains active in alumni and fundraising activities, and received his law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he received the Sindell Award for Oral Advocacy and was a member of the National Moot Court Team and the Moot Court Executive Board.

When he is not working, Michael likes to travel, read, listen to jazz, blues, and classical music, and work out. He and his wife, who also is a retired lawyer, are self-admitted addicts to British and Irish police and detective procedurals, and espionage thrillers.

Senior Research Librarian
Education & Event Coordinator

Sarah Hart
shart@insurancelibrary.org
Ext. 202

Sarah Hart, MLS, Senior Research Librarian and Education & Event Coordinator, joined the Library in 2001 while attending the Graduate School of Library and Information Science program at Simmons College. She has been involved in the planning, organization, and oversight of the Library’s annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award gala and the bi-annual Insurance Library Scavenger Hunt since the inception of both events. As the Library’s Education Coordinator, Sarah plans and administers the Library’s webinars and in-person classes, including those approved for producer continuing education credit in all six New England states, the Library’s popular virtual Lunch & Learns, and the Library’s Summer Intern Program since its inception in 2022.

Sarah began both her insurance and research career in high school while working summers as a customer service/title assistant at a title insurance company in Alaska.

Sarah served in various board positions for the Association of Boston Law Librarians, where she most recently served as President. Previously, she was Vice President and Chair of the Standing Committee on Education, and before that she was Vice President and Chair of the Committee on Communications. At the Library, Sarah serves as a primary point of contact for Boston law firm librarians who are interested in the Library’s research resources and services, and our education programs.

Accounting & Administrative Specialist

Susan Garland
sgarland@insurancelibrary.org
Ext. 203

Susan Garland joined the Library in July 2026 as the Accounting and Administrative Specialist. In this role, she is responsible for all bookkeeping and internal accounting, daily administrative needs, and providing support for special events, webinars, and continuing education credit filings.

After earning a degree in Animal Science from Cornell University, Susan built much of her career in the nonprofit sector. She began as a Volunteer Manager at a wildlife rehabilitation center on Long Island before moving into education, teaching at both the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium. Later, while working with small and mid-sized nonprofits, she transitioned into business operations for a whale research organization and a therapeutic riding center, where she strengthened her skills in bookkeeping, human resources, and organizational management. A lifelong lover of puzzles, Susan enjoys bringing order to complex financial records and streamlining processes.

Originally from New York, Susan has also lived in California and has called Massachusetts home for the past 27 years. She shares her home with her husband and two adopted cats, Minke and Finn, whose names were inspired by her previous work at the Whale Center. In her spare time, Susan loves to travel, especially to visit her sons in Seattle, Washington, and Denver, Colorado. One destination on her bucket list is the Galápagos Islands, where she hopes to see blue-footed boobies in the wild. When she’s not traveling, you might find her participating in one of her five book clubs or knitting with friends.