Chair

Lisa Messinger has been a long-time leader and volunteer in several community organizations and Jewish organizations in New York and throughout North America. Until the 2018 death of her husband, HUC-JIR President Rabbi Aaron Panken, Lisa was his nearly full-time partner, traveling on behalf of HUC. After his death, she spearheaded a $12 million campaign to endow four new professorships in her husband’s name — one on each of HUC’s campuses.

Lisa completed four years as President of Westchester Reform Temple (WRT) and has served on the Board of the Foundation for Jewish Camp. She is past chair of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Northeast Camp Institute (Eisner and Crane Lake Camps).

Lisa received her B.A. from Northwestern University. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Coaching Certification Program and is a Wexner Heritage Fellow in Jewish Leadership. She sits on the boards of Central Synagogue and The Marlene Myerson JCC in Manhattan and acts as an advisor to several other non-profit organizations.

Lisa has two children with her late husband Aaron Panken.

Alisa Doctoroff is a past president of UJA-Federation of New York. She also previously served as Chair of the Board, as well as Chair of the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal after years of involvement with its work, particularly in Israel and with young people. Alisa is a past president of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and was instrumental in founding its high school division in 2001. She is active on the boards of a wide spectrum of organizations that promote engagement with Jewish life and identity through education, culture and religious life, including Moving Traditions, Mechon Hadar, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she is a Vice Chair. She is also past president of Congregation Or Zarua and former board member of the Jewish Funders Network.

Alisa graduated from Harvard College and received an M.B.A at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. She also holds an M.A. in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She lives in New York City with her husband, Dan. They are the proud parents of Jacob, Ariel, and Jenna.

Mamie Kanfer Stewart, a Founding Director and Secretary of Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, is the Founder and CEO of Meeteor, a consulting and training firm focused on building healthy, high performing teams with a special emphasis on productive meetings. Mamie is the author of Momentum: Creating Effective, Engaging and Enjoyable Meetings and host of The Modern Manager podcast.

Prior to founding Meeteor, Mamie consulted with non-profit organizations on staffing and strategic planning. She received an MBA from Stern Graduate School of Business at New York University and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Mamie is a current board member of Luria Academy and board chair of Bend the Arc. She has served on a number of other boards including Moishe House, InterfaithFamily and Slingshot. Mamie, her husband, and two children live in Brooklyn, NY.

Mimi Kravetz is currently the Chief Impact & Growth Officer at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), and has been a leader in the Jewish nonprofit sector for the past 20 years. Her career spans professional leadership roles at top business and nonprofit brands, from Hillel International to American Express to Google.

Mimi joined JFNA after building the HR Foundation at Twin, a digital health start-up, where she served as the company’s first Chief People Officer. At Hillel International, she first served as the inaugural Chief Talent Officer, building a renowned talent system that supported 1200 Hillel professionals across 550 campuses, and attracted top talent to Hillel and the Jewish non-profit sector as a whole. Mimi later expanded her scope to Chief Experience Officer, working across all student impact on initiatives such as Hillel@Home and Birthright Israel.

Prior to Hillel, she was Head of Employment Brand at Google where she was the senior marketing partner to Google’s People Operations team. She also served in a leadership role at Google.org, where she spearheaded educating and advising nonprofits.

Mimi received her MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from Tufts University in International Relations. She resides in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, their two children, Alec and Chloe, dog Foggy, and two cats.

Faith Leener is the Founding Executive Director of Base (basemovement.org), overseeing the growing network of Bases and leading Base’s strategic development, fundraising, and expansion efforts. She is excited to grow Base’s footprint at Moishe House – connecting more young adults to Rabbis as spiritual mentors, pastoral guides, educators, and local organizers. She believes that Judaism and Jewish community, if offered and cultivated with intention, authenticity, openness, and curiosity, have the capacity to bring tremendous meaning, purpose, and joy to our lives.

Faith holds a BA in American History from Brandeis University, an MPA in Public Policy & Non-Profit Management and an MA in Judaic Studies, both from NYU. Although she is a proud Charlotte native, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband Rabbi Jon and her two delicious children, Yehuda (Hudi), and Hannah. In her spare time she sits on the Board of Directors of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, volunteers with ImmerseNYC, and collaborates with friends and artists on creating and leading experiences grounded in Jewish spirituality and mindfulness practices.

Or Mars is a Vice President of The Wexner Foundation where he focuses on the development of Jewish professional and volunteer leaders in North America, and public leaders in Israel. Or has worked in many different Jewish organizations and has studied at various Jewish organizations (Hebrew University, the Pardes Institute, the Hartman Institute and The Jewish Theological Seminary).

From 2000-2006 he served as the Executive Director of North Carolina Hillel. He is the Chair of M2: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education and serves on the JPRO Network board. Or is also the founder and facilitator of the Jewish Meditation Project of Columbus and teaches weekly at Temple Israel.

Or holds an MSW in Planning and Community Organizing from the University of Southern California and an MA in Jewish Non-Profit Management from Hebrew Union College. Or is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program and the Jerusalem Fellows and was formerly the Director of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program.

Abigail Pogrebin is the author of “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish” and “My Jewish Year:18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew” which was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. She has written for The Atlantic, New York Magazine and other publications, and wrote a series for The Forward called “Still Small Voice” — interviewing 18 clergy and scholars about their own faith, which received recognition from The Religion News Association and the American Jewish Press Association in 2021.

A former Emmy-nominated producer for 60 Minutes, she moderates public interviews for the Manhattan JCC, the Streicker Center, the Shalom Hartman Institute, and JTS. She has been a guest on CNN, Good Morning America, and Face the Nation. Abby is a past president of Central Synagogue in Manhattan and sits on The Shalom Hartman Board, AJC’s Muslim Jewish Advisory Council and the Yale Hillel Slifka Board.

David Resnick is managing partner at Wood Lily Advisors LLC. From 2013 to 2017, he served as President of Third Avenue Management, LLC. Previously, Mr. Resnick was the Chairman of Global Financing Advisory, Managing Director and Head of Restructuring at Rothschild Inc., responsible for Rothschild's global restructuring, debt advisory and equity advisory businesses. From 1996 to 2000, he was Head of Restructuring at Peter J. Solomon Company, and prior to this, was at Lazard Frères & Co., where he worked on both restructuring and mergers and acquisitions assignments. He began his career in 1985 at the investment banking division at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., where he worked in merchant banking and restructuring as well as the mergers and acquisitions group.

Mr. Resnick has served as a Director of Corporate Risk Holdings, LLC, Affinion Group, Inc. and Reichhold Holdings. He is a member of the Board of Directors of UJA-Federation of New York, The Jewish Museum, The Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Lotos Club, the Rodeph Sholom Day School and recently competed his term on the Board of Wesleyan University, where he remains on the Investment Committee. Mr. Resnick holds a M.B.A. and J.D. from The University of Chicago and a B.A., with High Honors, from Wesleyan University.

Daniel Septimus is the CEO of Sefaria.