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2006 HONOREES

Michelle Bernstein
Chef and Owner, Michy’s Restaurant
Miami, FL

Miami’s award-winning chef and restaurateur Michelle Bernstein draws on her Latin-Jewish roots – Argentine and French – for culinary inspiration in her various and successful endeavors: owner of Miami hotspot restaurant Michy’s and Michelle’s at Carysfort, cookbook author, and consulting chef for Delta Air Lines. Michelle trained as a dancer but switched to culinary arts midway through college. She studied with famed chef Jean-Louis Palladin and gained fame with her signature contemporary American fusion cuisine as the chef at Azul at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami. Michelle has appeared on the Today show, been featured in Bon Appetit and the New York Times, and co-hosted the Food Network’s Melting Pot show for two years. She has been nominated twice for Best Chef of the South from the James Beard Association.

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Wendy C. Drucker
Co-CEO, Drucker & Falk, LLC
Newport News, VA

As co-CEO of Drucker & Falk LLC, a property management and real estate investment services company, Wendy C. Drucker directs the management, supervision and construction of apartment communities. She grew up working with her mother on large philanthropic projects in the Newport News, Va. area; today she dedicates much of her professional life to non-profit endeavors. Wendy is equally skilled at fund-raising and philanthropic networking, and has led her company’s outreach to residents in low-income communities, offering opportunities to get health screenings, visit a bookmobile or meet local police and fire officials.

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Dr. Perri Klass
Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics, New York University
New York, NY

Dr. Perri Klass is a prolific journalist, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and the author of 10 books of fiction and nonfiction. She is the president and medical director of the child literacy program Reach Out and Read, which trains pediatricians to promote early literacy among their patients, and recently became a professor of journalism and pediatrics at New York University. In Spring 2006, Dr. Klass and her mother, English professor and novelist Sheila Solomon Klass, published their first collaboration as writers, Every Mother Is a Daughter. Dr. Klass’ newest book, Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor, was published this past June.

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Susan Manheimer
Chief of Police, San Mateo Police Department
San Mateo, CA

As chief of police in San Mateo, Calif., Susan Manheimer commands 175 members and is one of 15 women (and two Jewish women) out of California’s 338 municipal police chiefs. Her community-based approach to law enforcement partners police with other criminal justice agencies and resources (such as public health and substance abuse counselors) equipped to address the problems for which police are often the first responders.  Prior to serving the city of San Mateo, Susan worked for the San Francisco Police Department for 16 years, working her way up through a variety of assignments to captain of San Francisco’s toughest district. She serves as a Vice President of the statewide California Police Chiefs Association, and is the president of the San Mateo County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association.

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Marcella Kanfer Rolnick
New Ventures Director, GOJO
Chair and President, Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation
Akron, OH

Marcella Kanfer Rolnick found success as a management consultant in New York in her family’s business, GOJO Industries in Akron, Ohio, where she helped launch PURELL® Instant Hand Sanitizer and created an e-business unit. She then decided to build upon her family’s commitment to Jewish communal service and spent two years at Boston-based Jewish content publisher Jewish Family & Life! Now back with GOJO, Marcella runs a venture investment program that includes Israeli technology ventures. She is also spearheading the re-launch of Joshua Venture, a fellowship program for Jewish social entrepreneurs, and co-creating the Lippman Kanfer Institute for Innovation in Jewish Learning and Engagement, developed through her family’s foundation.

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Marcella L. Roenneburg, M.D.
Urogynecologist, The Weinberg Center for Women’s Health & Medicine at Mercy Medical Center
Baltimore, MD

Dr. Marcella Roenneburg is a nationally recognized expert in urinary incontinence and pelvic reconstructive surgery. Four years ago, she joined a medical mission to the West African nation of Niger to work with girls as young as 12 who had suffered childbearing-related wounds and were left incontinent and ostracized by their families and communities. In Niger, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone, she has operated on scores of young women with vesicovaginal fistulas – holes between the bladder and the vagina – and provided instruction to native physicians on how to make the repairs. Although rare in the United States, fistulas are a tremendous international health problem. Dr. Roenneburg also sees patients in the nationally renowned Weinberg Center for Women’s Health and Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Md.

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Susan N. Shankman
Associate Rabbi, Washington Hebrew Congregation
Washington, DC

Rabbi Susan Shankman is an Associate Rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation. Along with officiating at services, life cycle events and pastoral care and counseling, Rabbi Shankman also focuses on adult education, youth programming, social action, outreach, programming for young families, and Sisterhood. She is Co-chair of the URJ Regional Outreach and Membership Committee, and a regional rabbinic advisor to NFTY-MAR.  She was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati in 2001. As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Shankman served student pulpits in Valparaiso, Ind., and Columbus, Miss., providing their sole rabbinic support. She worked as an intern in both the Youth Programs Department and the Outreach Department of HUC-JIR. Upon ordination, Rabbi Shankman received the Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize, recognizing her contributions toward the development of community relations.

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Carol Shapiro
President and Director, Family Justice
New York, NY

Over the past 30 years, Carol Shapiro has devised numerous approaches to improving public safety and family well-being in the fields of drug abuse, mental health, housing and law enforcement. As the Founder and President of Family Justice, a national family-focused justice reform agency, Carol serves as an advisor to many governmental and citizen sector initiatives. In 2001, Carol was named an Ashoka Innovator for the Public Fellow. In 2002, Family Justice’s neighborhood family support center La Bodega de la Familia, in partnership with the New York State Division of Parole, was named a winner of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award. Carol is also the recipient of the 2006 Maud Booth Correctional Services Award from Volunteers of America.

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Cindy Spiegel
Senior Vice President, Spiegel & Grau
New York, NY

Cindy Spiegel, senior vice president and publisher at Spiegel & Grau (a division of Random House’s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group), has published such bestsellers as Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and James McBride’s The Color of Water. She has also discovered a number of prominent Jewish writers, including Aryeh Stollman and Gary Shteyngart. Formerly publisher of Penguin’s Riverhead Books, Spiegel considers herself lucky to have worked with people who respect her judgment. Her experience and success, coupled with this sentiment, inform the working philosophy – to allow editors to develop their own vision and simply ‘do their job’ – that has guided her to the top of her field.

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Aviva Tessler
President and Founder, Operation Embrace
Potomac, MD

Aviva Tessler was inspired to create Operation Embrace, a non-profit that responds to the needs of injured victims of terror in Israel, while delivering Purim boxes to hospitalized Israeli survivors in 2001. In addition to serving as founder and president of the organization, Aviva is a licensed marriage and family therapist, teaches monthly Rosh Chodesh classes, weekly Torah portion classes, writes a weekly Torah column and lectures nationally and internationally on topics related to psychology, spirituality and Judaism. She has been a faculty member of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, and teaches at Beth Sholom in Potomac, Md., where her husband Rabbi Joel Tessler leads the congregation.

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Lorey Zlotnik
Vice President of Marketing and On-Air Promotions, Fox Reality
Los Angeles, CA

Lorey Zlotnick is the senior vice president of consumer marketing and on-air promotions at Fox Reality, Fox Cable Networks’ 24-hour reality television channel.  She launched the marketing and on-air efforts for the network in Spring 2005, keeping her hands in everything from strategy to publicity to branding. Early in her career, Lorey won awards for her branding and marketing initiatives for the Los Angeles Times.  Since then, she has spearheaded the promotional strategy behind hit Bravo TV show launches like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Project Runway, and has achieved incredible success launching advertising and promotional campaigns for Disney, Sony, NBC Universal and other entertainment giants.

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2005 HONOREES

Dr. Nieca Goldberg
Author and Medical Director
NYU Women's Heart Program
New York, NY

Founder of the Woman's Heart Program at New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital and former Chief of their Women’s Cardiac Care program, Dr. Nieca Goldberg is currently the Medical Director of the NYU Women’s Heart Program. She is the author of The Women’s Healthy Heart Program (originally published as Women Are Not Small Men: Life-Saving Strategies for Preventing and Healing Heart Disease in Women) and such an outspoken advocate for women's cardiac health that her face now appears on the back of several million boxes of Chex cereal. Her award-winning book has empowered women to better navigate the healthcare system. Dr. Goldberg is publishing her second book in January 2008, called Dr. Nieca Goldberg’s Complete Guide to Women’s Health. 

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Amy B. Harris
Writer and Producer for Film and Television
New York, NY

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Rosalyn Jonas
Abortion Rights Activist

Since she was elected to the national board of NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2002, Rosalyn Jonas has been dedicated to the organization and its mission to guarantee every woman the right to make her own decisions about the full range of reproductive choices.  She served for three years as chair of the national board and continues her work there while also serving on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland.  As a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington and as its president, Roz created Sarah’s Sisters, an ongoing series of programs designed to enrich the lives of Jewish women, and worked to create a culture of receptivity to women’s involvement as agency lay leaders.

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Stacy D. Phillips
Senior Partner, Phillips, Lerner, Lauzon & Jamra
Los Angeles, CA

A founding partner of Phillips, Lerner, Lauzon & Jamra, LLP, in Los Angeles, Stacy D. Phillips helps educate clients to make informed decisions at the most difficult times in their lives. Stacy specializes in family law and handles cases of divorce, custody, paternity and other areas of matrimonial litigation and mediation for an A-List client roster. She is considered one of the nation's premier experts in family law, offering lectures in law schools, bar associations and professional groups, commentary on television news shows, radio programs and quotes and articles in national publications. Her first book, Divorce: It's All About Control, How to Win the Emotional, Psychological and Legal Wars, was released in August.

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Hannah Rosenthal
Executive Director, Chicago Foundation for Womn
Chicago, IL

As Executive Director of Chicago Foundation for Women, Hannah Rosenthal oversees one of the largest women’s funds in the world. The Foundation’s priority issues include comprehensive access to health services and information, freedom from violence and abuse, and economic self-sufficiency.  Prior to joining Chicago Foundation for Women, Hannah served as executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), making history as the only woman heading a major national Jewish organization in 2000. Hannah has been named one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Women’s eNews and was included in the 2006 “Who’s Who Among Foundation Executives” in Crain’s Chicago Business.

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Rabbi Amy Schwartzman
Senior Rabbi of Temple Rodef Shalom
VP of the Washington Board of Rabbis
Falls Church, VA

In 1998, Rabbi Amy Schwartzman broke ground when she became senior rabbi of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Va., the largest congregation in the country headed by a woman rabbi at that time. She is involved in the leadership of many Jewish organizations including the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Rabbinic Alumni Association of the Hebrew Union College and was the co-coordinator of the Women’s Rabbinic Network from 1997-1999.  She has worked with many community organizations including the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, national and local housing organizations, and has been active in community AIDS projects. She also has served as president of the McLean Clergy Association. 

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Rachel Simmons
Author, Odd Girl Out
Founding Director, The Girls’ Leadership Institute
Brooklyn, NY

As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Rachel Simmons discovered her life’s calling when she started to study aggression in girls. She withdrew from Oxford and wrote the best-selling book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, based on hundreds of interviews with girls and the universal experiences that came to light in the process. Rachel has written a follow-up book, Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy. She is an expert on the subject of female bullying among youth, and has spoken to schools across the country and appeared on television shows including “Oprah” and “Dateline NBC.” Rachel is the founder of the summer camp program, the Girls Leadership Institute, and is currently working on a third book, a guide to empowering girls.

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Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair
Clinical Psychologist and Researcher
Cambridge, MA

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Susan W. Turnbull
Vice Chair, Democratic National Committee  
Bethesda, MD

As a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Susan Wolf Turnbull travels the country on behalf of Democratic candidates and appears on talk radio and national cable television to discuss everything from health care to positions on Middle East politics. Not only is Susan an active liaison to the Jewish community, she also works to shatter the glass ceiling for women in politics. For more than 30 years, she has divided her time between politics and an interior space planning business focusing her professional energies on projects with several major Jewish non-profit agencies. Susan joined JWI’s Board of Trustees in 2006 and is Chair of the 2007 Women to Watch event.

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Debra Weinberg
Coordinator, ACHARAI: The Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Development Institute
Baltimore, MD

Debra Silberman Weinberg has facilitated leadership programs in the Jewish community for the past 15 years, currently as the coordinator of ACHARAI: The Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Development Institute, and previously as executive director of the Darrell Friedman Institute for Professional Development (formerly the Baltimore Institute for Jewish Communal Service). As a social worker in the 1980s, she worked to resettle immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Debra is the past Chair of a volunteer committee that helped revitalize Jewish life in the former Soviet metropolis of Odessa. Currently, she is Chair of the HBI (Hadassah Brandeis Institute), which looks at gender and Judaism in fresh ways through scholarly research and artistic projects.

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Ivy Zelman
Stock Analyst/Broker
Moreland Hills, OH

After 17 years working as a stock analyst, including 10 years at Credit Suisse First Boston and 7 years at Salomon Brothers, Ivy Zelman is opening her own securities broker/dealer with her husband David. The company, Zelman Partners, LLC, opens for business in early October 2007. While at Credit Suisse, Ivy covered 22 home-building, building products and furniture companies, and earned an enviable reputation for the accuracy of her stock predictions. The May 2005 issue of Forbes magazine ranked her number one among 3,300 analysts in all of Wall Street. She has been rated the number-one analyst in the housing industry by the Institutional Investors All American Research Team since 1999, and by the Greenwich Associates Institutional Research Services Poll since 2000.

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2004 HONOREES

Bonnie Bernstein
National Sports Reporter & Host, ABC/ESPN
New York, NY

At 36, Bonnie Bernstein has risen to the top of a traditionally male-dominated field and is a reporter and host for ABC Sports and ESPN. Once a competitive gymnast at the University of Maryland, Bonnie was the first female weekday sports anchor in Reno, Nev., and spent eight years as one of the most visible faces at CBS Sports prior to joining ABC/ESPN in 2006. One of the few female sportscasters at the Network level, Bonnie has covered nearly every professional and collegiate sport, including football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, track, tennis and figure skating.

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Dr. Joslyn (Joey) Fisher, MD, MPH
Physician
Houston, TX

Dr. Joslyn (Joey) Fisher is a physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Baylor College of Medicine. She practices and teaches medical students and residents at Ben Taub General Hospital, the largest provider of indigent care in Harris County (Houston, Tx.). Her academic focus is on women’s health and in particular domestic violence. She is the founder of the VIVA (Volunteer Initiative vs. Violent Acts) Project, which teaches healthcare professionals how to identify and intervene in cases where patients have experienced domestic violence. She also is the co-founder and President of the Texas Medical Center Women’s Health Network, a non-profit dedicated to advancing women’s health through inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional collaborations.

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Zehava Gal-On
Member of Knesset
Jerusalem, Israel

Zehava Gal-On, the first-ever female head of a Knesset faction (Meretz-Yachad), is changing the world, one law at a time. Zehava is renowned for her record on women's issues and human rights. A founder of the human rights watchdog organization B'Tselem, she has passed laws that provide mandatory prison terms for sexual offenders and abusive husbands; give women leaving battered women’s shelters financial assistance to help them start new lives; and require the representation of women in all sports organizations. Zehava also has initiated laws against human trafficking and serves as chairperson of the SubCommittee on Trafficking in Women.

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Lauren Greenfield
Photographer and Documentary Filmmaker
Venice, CA

Lauren Greenfield is considered a preeminent chronicler of youth culture as a result of her groundbreaking projects Girl Culture and Fast Forward. Her photographs have been widely exhibited and are in many museum collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. She was named by American Photo as one of the 25 most influential photographers working today. Her latest work, Thin, is Greenfield’s first feature-length documentary film (HBO) and a companion photography book (Chronicle Books), both of which have won several awards including an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Directing and the Best Documentary Award at the London Film Festival. 

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Rabbi Karyn Kedar
Author & Pulpit Rabbi
Congregation B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim
Glenview, IL

Rabbi Karyn Kedar leads Congregation B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Ill., one of only seven or eight women in the world to serve as senior rabbi in a congregation of 800 members or more. She was previously director of the Great Lakes Region of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, overseeing 62 Reform congregations in five Midwest states. She holds the distinction of being the first woman rabbi in Jerusalem. Kedar has also authored three books, The Bridge to Forgiveness, God Whispers: Stories of the Soul, Lessons of the Heart (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000) and Our Dance With God (originally called The Dance of the Dolphin and retitled for the paperback edition, Jewish Lights Publishing, 2001).

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Dr. Amy Kossoff
Sibley Hospital
Unity Healthcare
Founder, "Womenade"
Chevy Chase, MD

Dr. Amy Kossoff began working with indigent patients immediately after medical school and often gave those patients money for prescriptions and other basic needs. She currently serves as the staff physician at Unity Healthcare and medical staff at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C. She also is the founder of Womenade, a fundraising model in which women get together with a dish to eat and a check to give to the needy. Since 2000, Womenade has raised tens of thousands of dollars and has been replicated in communities nationwide. 

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Laura Heller Lauder
Venture Philanthropist
Atherton, CA

Laura Heller Lauder is a venture philanthropist who, in 2001, founded DeLeT (the Hebrew word for “door”), Day-school Leadership through Training. DeLeT is a fellowship program to recruit and train top-quality teachers for careers in Jewish day schools. In 2002, with 12 co-funders, the program began to train 20 fellows each year. Graduates are now enriching the lives of students in Jewish schools nationwide. Lauder is the wife of venture capitalist Gary Lauder, whose family is known for its cosmetics brand and generous philanthropy work.

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Stacy Madison
Co-founder, Stacy's Pita Chip Company
Randolph, MA

After a four-year career in social work and living in California, Stacy Madison met Stacy’s Pita Chip Company Co-Founder Mark Andrus. They decided to go into business together and moved back to the east coast, where they founded Stacy's Pita Chip Company. Stacy was invited to the White House in 1999 as a leading woman-owned business. The company also received the 2004 Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce “Small Business of the Year” award and was honored with the Fleet Bank Entrepreneur of the Year award. Stacy is a frequent public speaker, presenting to organizations including the Harvard-Radcliffe Women’s Leadership Conference, Northeastern University Entrepreneurship Club and the Financial Women’s Association. Stacy also participated in the New York/Boston AIDS Ride – riding 350 miles to help support the fight against AIDS.

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Dr. Deborah Marin
Chief Medical Officer, The Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY

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July Bender Silver
President, Bender Foundation, Inc.
Washington, DC

Julie Bender Silver is president of the Bender Foundation, Inc., the Washington, D.C. family foundation started by her grandfather that annually contributes to more than 70 nonprofit groups. Her experience with volunteering and leadership began with the Service Guild of Washington, a group of Jewish women who volunteer for community projects, which she served as president from 1986-1988.  For the Jewish Community Center, she led the creation of the Bender-Dosik Parenting Center, where parents find support, learn about Jewish values, and seek advice from child development experts. Julie also was instrumental in launching the second site at Glen Echo for Discovery Creek children's museum.  Her fundraising skills have benefited numerous institutions, including the Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, the Jewish Social Service Agency, the National Children's Hospital, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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Linda Kaplan Thaler
Founder, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Kaplan Thaler Group
New York, NY

As CEO and Chief Creative Officer for the Kaplan Thaler Group, Linda Kaplan Thaler is the creative force behind such marketing icons as AFLAC’s talking duck, the Toys-R-Us "I Don't Want to Grow Up" song, and Clairol's Herbal Essences shampoo campaign. Under Linda’s leadership, the Kaplan Thaler Group has been ranked by industry publications as the fastest-growing ad agency in the country. Linda has co-written two books with Robin Koval: the best-selling book, Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World and The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness. Linda and her husband, composer Fred Thaler, have created numerous pro bono films for the United Jewish Communities that have helped raise millions of dollars.

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2003 HONOREES

Gila Bronner 
President and CEO, Bronner Group, LLC
Chicago, IL

Gila J. Bronner, CPA, is president and CEO of Bronner Group, LLC, a woman-owned, multi-disciplined professional services company for federal, state and local government entities. Gila is a nationally recognized authority on governmental auditing, compliance and oversight and a thought leader on public sector implementation and compliance issues associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  She serves or has served on numerous civic and professional boards as well as several independent oversight and advisory commissions, including the Illinois State Government Accountability Council, where she led a high profile government-wide customer service improvement initiative.  Gila was appointed by President Clinton to the governing board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and by NASA to serve on the NASA Advisory Council, Financial Audit Committee. 

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Shifra Bronznick
Principal, Bronznick & Co., LLC
Founding President of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community
New York, NY

Shifra Bronznick, president of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community and founder of change management firm Bronznick & Co., has built a career out of her innovative approaches to help shatter the glass ceiling and offer a new model for leadership in not for profit organizations. The co-author, of Leveling The Playing Field: Advancing Women in Jewish Organizations, Shifra has spent the last decade creating initiatives that promote gender equality, diversity and flexibility in a range of influential Jewish organizations.  Her consulting work with organizations, such as The White House Project, American Jewish World Service and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, has focused on leadership and social change.

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Diana Cantor  
Executive Director, Virginia College Savings Plan
Glen Allen, VA
 
Diana Cantor is the executive director of the innovative Virginia College Savings Plan that has inspired similar programs throughout the U.S. A CPA and attorney, Diana left a career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs to build the state’s 529 program from scratch into a $27 billion agency with more than 4 million accounts. At the end of 2007, Diana will be leaving her position after 11 years to join banker Howard Milstein and his New York Private Bank and Trust. Because of Diana’s pioneering success in Virginia, countless families nationwide are learning how to save for the escalating costs of education, and finding it easier to do so.

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Ruth Faden    
Executive Director, Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute
Baltimore, MD

Ruth R. Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Executive Director of The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She is also a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. She is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on biomedical ethics and health policy including Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy (with Madison Powers), AIDS, Women and the Next Generation (Ruth Faden, Gail Geller and Madison Powers, eds.), and HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Ruth Faden and Nancy Kass, eds.). Dr. Faden is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the American Psychological Association. 

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Cherie Kirschbaum 
President, City Projects, Inc.
Denver, CO

Cherie Kirschbaum is president of City Projects, Inc., a company committed to leading change that transforms people, places and communities. City Projects specializes in assisting private, public and government clients in identifying new and innovative financial resources for real estate development projects in housing, education, healthcare and transit. Cherie is a member of the Advisory Board of Seedco Financial Services Denver and is the immediate past president of the Board of the Mile High Housing Fund, a $13 million community development investment fund located in Denver. In addition, Cherie is producing a short-film documentary, “Boomer Creatives: Facing Change Head On©.”

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Sherri Mandell  
Founder, The Koby Mandell Foundation
Israel

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Maria Ramos 
Attorney & Consultant on Multiculturalism
Mill Valley, CA

Maria Ramos-Chertok is a lawyer and an advocate for victims of family violence. She is the author of a benchbook for judges on cultural considerations in domestic abuse cases and a consultant to non-profit organizations on communication, multiculturalism and conflict resolution. Her childhood home became one of the nation's first domestic violence shelters when her mother began taking in boarders to help those in need. Raised by a Jewish mother converted to Catholicism, Ramos reconnected with Judaism in adulthood.

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Rochelle Shoretz  
Founder, Sharsheret
Teaneck, NJ

Rochelle Shoretz founded Sharsheret, a national non-profit providing support and resources for young Jewish women facing breast cancer, following her own diagnosis at age 28. As Executive Director of Sharsheret from 2001-2006 and now as a member of Sharsheret's Board of Directors, she lectures about breast cancer before audiences across the country. Rochelle’s pioneering efforts in establishing Sharsheret have been recognized by Joshua Venture, a fellowship that supports the efforts of a new generation of young Jewish leaders. In 1999, she served as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is currently an associate in the Investment Management Group at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, a law firm in New York City.

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Audrey Weiner  
President and CEO, Jewish Home & Hospital Life-Care System
New York, NY

Audrey S. Weiner, DSW, MPH is president and CEO of the Jewish Home & Hospital Lifecare System in New York, a continuum serving 10,000 elders a year. She also serves as Chair of the Ethics Commission of The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and the Continuing Care Leadership coalition, the New York area non-profit long term care provider association. Audrey is a past president of the Jewish Communal Services Association, Vice President of the World Council of Jewish Communal Services, a member of the Advancing Women Professional’s Board and recently completed her term as co-chair of the Women’s Executive Circle of UJA-Federation of New York. In 2006, she edited the first special issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service on aging in the Jewish community. 

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Jennifer Weiner  
Author
Philadelphia, PA

Jennifer Weiner worked as a newspaper reporter in Central Pennsylvania, Lexington, Ky., and Philadelphia before publishing her first novel, Good in Bed in 2001. She has since published three additional novels: In Her Shoes (2002), Little Earthquakes (2004), and Goodnight Nobody (2006), as well as a collection of short stories, The Guy Not Taken, published in September 2006. In October 2005, the film version of In Her Shoes, starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine, was released.  Jennifer’s next novel, the sequel to Good in Bed, will be published in the spring of 2008. 

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2002 HONOREES

Col. Michelle Ross
U.S. Army
Edgewood, MD

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Maggy Siegel
President, Delman and Nina Kids
New York, NY

Maggy Siegel is currently President of Delman and Nina Kids Footwear, both divisions of Nina Footwear Corp. Prior to Delman, she was the President and CEO of Judith Leiber LLC until 2005. Maggy has held several other senior management positions within the luxury goods industry including Vice President of Fine Jewelry and Watches at Chanel; President of Baume & Mercier; Vice President of International for Coach; and President of Tiffany’s Swiss Watch Center and Vice President of Merchandising for Tiffany & Company. Maggy serves as Vice President of the Board of Trustees of CancerCare and is a member of its Executive, Gala and Program Advisory and Oversight Committees. She also is a member of the Dean’s Council for Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

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Dr. Rachel Brem
Director, Breast Imaging
George Washington University Medial Center
Owings Mills, MD

Dr. Rachel Brem is the director of Breast Imaging and Intervention as well as a Professor of Radiology at The George Washington University Medical Center. She has been instrumental in developing  new technologies for the improved and earlier diagnosis of breast cancer including using artificial intelligence to detect earlier cancers on mammograms as well as molecular breast imaging using Breast Specific Gamma Imaging. Dr. Brem has received numerous awards, honors and recognition, including the Journal of Women’s Imaging’s “Editor’s Recognition Award” and the International Biographical Center’s “Woman of the Year.” She serves as a reviewer to numerous journals including The Journal of National Cancer Institute, the American Journal of Roentgenology, The Breast Journal, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

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Nikki Tesfai
Director, African Community Resource Center
Los Angeles, CA

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Deborah Drattell
Composer-in-Residence, NYC Opera
Brooklyn, NY

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Linda Addison
Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P.
Houston, TX

Linda Addison is an internationally-recognized litigator and corporate counselor who serves on the Executive Committee of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.  Described by Lawdragon as “equally skilled at keeping CEOs out of the courtroom as she is representing them once there,” she was named one of the “50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal in 2007 and one of only 17 women named as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” in 2006.  Honored as the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast 2006 Woman of the Year, she serves on the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and on the boards of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Foundation and the Holocaust Museum Houston.

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Andrea Kalin
Documentary Filmmaker
Washington, DC

An award-winning filmmaker, Andrea Kalin is currently directing two new documentaries, Prince Among Slaves and Soul of a People: Voices from the Writers’ Project, scheduled to be released by fall and spring 2008, respectively. Andrea’s PBS documentary Partners of the Heart won several awards and was named Best History Documentary by the Organization of American Historians in 2004. Her recent documentary The Pact has collected rave reviews on the festival circuit and will air on public television in 2008. Andrea has produced several programs for cause-related campaigns, including a featurette on eliminating animal research and promoting preventive medicine and a film about increasing religious pluralism.  She also produced a retrospective about being Jewish in Washington featuring Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and NY Times Columnist Frank Rich.  

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Rabbi Yael Ridberg
West End Synagogue
New York, NY

Rabbi Yael Ridberg, the dynamic leader of the West End Synagogue in New York, is in her tenth year with that congregation.  Her leadership skills and progressive ideas are helping transform her synagogue and the Reconstructionist movement. She serves on the executive committee of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and she serves as a commentator for the movement’s Guide for Jewish Practice.  Rabbi Ridberg has been invited to speak and lead workshops across the denominational spectrum and has recently contributed to the forthcoming, Life, Faith, and Cancer to be published this fall by the Reform Press. 

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Pearl Gluck
Documentary Filmmaker, Palinka Pictures
New York, NY

Pearl Gluck carries the Hasidic tradition of her youth into her filmmaking.  Her first film “Divan” (2004) tracks her great-grandfather’s rabbinic couch from its origins in Hungary to Brooklyn’s Hasidic community. “Williamsburg: Inside/Out” (2007), broadcast in France, is a documentary tour of Hasidic culture from inside the community to its artistic arbiters in the “outside world.” Her work has been supported by the Fulbright Grant to Hungary, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Sundance Institute, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, among others. Her video art, short films, and features have premiered internationally in venues such as the Sundance Channel, Film Forum, Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and Lincoln Center.  Her work continues through Palinka Pictures.

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Ruth Bar-On
Founder, SELAH—Israel Crisis Management Center
Tel Aviv, Israel

Ruth Bar-On and her organization, SELAH, have sought to fill the void in counseling and social services for Israeli immigrants since 1993. The Israel Crisis Management Center helps the families and children of those killed in terror attacks and the injured themselves. They assist the children left behind in an unfamiliar country and also help new immigrants affected by fire, flood, car accidents or family violence. Ruth is a lifeline for those victims who live without a support network. Prior to leading SELAH, she was the executive director of the Israel Public Council for Soviet Jewry.

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2001 HONOREES

Susan Bressler, M.D.   
Professor of Ophthamology, Johns Hopkins University Hospital

When Dr. Susan Bressler was promoted to professor of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, she became the second woman to hold that position. In May 2004, she was inducted as the inaugural recipient of the Julia G. Levy, PhD Professor of Ophthalmology. She has published 150 peer reviewed articles and 50 book chapters. Her main research interest has been collaborative efforts in clinical trials, with specific emphasis on the treatment of choroidal neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration. She has received several awards in her field, including a Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Honor Award from The American Society of Retina Specialists.

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Amy B. Dean 
Co-Founder, Building Partnerships USA
San Jose, CA

Amy Dean is co-founder of Building Partnerships USA (BPUSA), a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing civic and political participation to strengthen democracy and advance social and economic justice at the regional level.  Amy is currently co-authoring a book entitled, Toward a More Perfect Union: Rebuilding America’s Social Contract Region by Region.  When she was elected to lead the Silicon Valley AFL-CIO, Amy was the youngest person and first woman to lead a major metropolitan labor federation.  She has received the John W. Gardner Exemplary Leader Award form the American Leadership Forum; the Gloria Steinem Woman of Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation; and the Young Practitioner Award from the Industrial Relations Research Association. In July 2007, Amy began her service as Co-Chair of the Board of the public foundation Jewish Funds for Justice.

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The Honorable Nanci J. Grant
Sixth Circuit Court
Pontiac, MI

When elected in 1996 as an Oakland County Circuit Judge, the Honorable Nanci J. Grant was one of the youngest women elected to the circuit court in Michigan. She is a past Presiding Judge of the General Jurisdiction Division of the Sixth Circuit Court and also has served as President of the Michigan Judges Association. She recently was elected by the state’s judiciary to serve as their representative on the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, which serves to promote the integrity of the judicial process and preserve public confidence in the courts. Judge Grant has achieved the Martindale-Hubbell “AV” rating, a recognition by peers as the highest standard of professional ethics and legal abilities.

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Laura E. Kaufman
Executive Director, Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
Chicago, IL

Laura E. Kaufman is an innovative leader whose passions for philanthropy, social service and women’s issues have immersed her in a career of outreach and advocacy. As executive director of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, Laura led the foundation from its early stages into a mature organization – increasing its endowment to $6.65 million and giving away more than $1 million to projects benefiting Jewish women and girls in Chicago, Israel and around the world. She has spent more than 24 years working on behalf of the interests of women and girls and has worked as a grant maker for 10 years. Laura is a frequent speaker on women and girls’ issues and has won several awards throughout her career. 

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Hilary Rosen 
President, OurChart.com
Washington, DC

Hilary Rosen is president of OurChart.com and the former chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade gr