About
My path to becoming a Jewish educator started when my three children attended Jewish day school in Rockland County. I started to learn along with them and the more I learned, the more I wanted to know more. I enrolled in all kinds of Adult Education classes and eventually began my formal graduate studies in Jewish education at JTS in 2006.
At that point, I completely switched gears in my career. I took advantage of all the learning that was offered, including a summer working at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack. That summer I witnessed enormous joy every day, and was convinced that joy was the salient way to connect kids to Judaism. It also became very clear how motivating emotions are when it comes to Jewish identity and practice.
After graduation, I joined the staff of Temple Israel Center in White Plains with a clear goal: I wanted that unmitigated joy in my school and the passion that comes through active participation. Creating a new model of education, which included full time community educators, my focus was addressing the needs of the whole student and teacher. This began my journey in learning and incorporating social and emotional learning into our daily routines and curricula.
My passion and belief that SEL should be at the heart of all Jewish learning led me back to JTS in 2016. I wanted to broaden my SEL learning and experience to include research and was accepted into the doctoral program. My research explored SEL in the congregational school setting and provided insight and understanding of how SEL is being successfully integrated in that setting. I also had the privilege of teaching graduate courses in leadership and SEL, and will continue teaching this coming fall.
I graduated this past May with a doctorate in Education. Today, much of my work is with directors, educators, and leaders in Jewish settings teaching them about SEL and sharing tools and strategies they can integrate into their educational settings.