Dan Cohen

President

Dan is the founder and President of Full Court Press, a business which provides public relations, public affairs and crisis counsel to companies, foundations and non-profits who wish to use strategic communications to make social change. He previously worked for General Mills and served as a political consultant for initiatives and Democratic candidates for offices from mayor to Congress. He was recently named by the East Bay Business Journal as one of its 40 under 40. He serves on the Board of Directors of Alameda County Meals on Wheels and is a member of the Executive Board of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Dan has a BS from Babson College and a JD from the William Mitchell College of Law.

Elissa Kittner

Vice President

Elissa works for Martha Montag Brown & Associates, a national executive search firm focused on senior level searches in corporate responsibility and philanthropy. She previously served as a Vice President with Business for Social Responsibility, worked in Corporate Affairs at Levi Strauss & Co. and was the Director of Planning and Development at a non-profit in Santa Barbara County. Elissa is currently co-chair of the Capital Campaign at Netivot Shalom. Elissa has a BA from Brown University and has a MA from City University.

JB Leibovitch

Treasurer

JB is the Information Systems Director, Application Development at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream in Oakland. Prior to joining Dreyer's in 1993, he had a brief career in systems consulting with Price Waterhouse. JB has been active in the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, and his family belongs to Temple Beth Abraham. He has a B.S. in Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Rachel Seder

Secretary

Rabbi Judah Dardik

Halachic Advisor

Rabbi Dardik is the spiritual leader of Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland. He received his BA from Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business, his MA from the Azrielli Graduate School of Jewish Education, and his ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva University. He is involved with numerous Jewish organizations locally and nationally.

Hilda Applbaum

Hilda is the Senior Vice President of The Capital Group and President, Income Fund of America, a part of Capital Research & Management, the research arm and subsidiary of the private mutual fund firm. Prior to joining The Capital Group in 1994, Hilda was a Principal Investment Officer and Director of Equity and Fixed-Income Research for the California Public Employees Retirement System. She serves on the Barnard Board of Trustees. She has a BA from Barnard.

Omri Dahan

Omri Dahan is a five-time entrepreneur with a track-record of building businesses with transformative ideas.  He is currently VP of Business Development for Marqeta – an innovative payment service.  Prior to that, he was CEO of TerraFusion, a materials science company based in New York and California, where he led a turnaround and exit of the business, built around an overhauled brand, sales and distribution capability. Omri spent seven years at The Trium Group, a boutique strategy firm based in SF and NY. Omri worked side by side with Fortune 100 executives to align, equip and mobilize their organizations to execute strategy. Omri was a Strategy and Business Development consultant for the Calvert Group, a family of socially-screened mutual funds. He also helped launch entrepreneurial ventures such as The Republic of Tea and Consensus Health. He spent a summer on President Clinton's White House Staff, advising the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.  A native of Marin County, Omri holds a B.S. from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Omri has been an active Board Member of the Manhattan Jewish Experience. MJE is a cutting-edge program for young Jewish professionals in their 20's and 30's, with little or no background in Judaism who are interested in connecting more to each other, to their community, and to Judaism.  He has also been a strategic advisor to Aish HaTorah's New York branch. Omri and his wife Jackie live in Oakland and are members at Beth Jacob. They have three children, Maya 2 ½ years old and twins Ezra and Jonah ages 13 months.

Leslie Edelman

Leslie has been actively involved with OHDS for the last 15 years as a parent, active volunteer and Board member. Prior to moving to the Bay Area in 1993 she worked in marketing for American Express. Leslie attended Jewish day schools for all of her elementary and high school years. She has a BA from Barnard and an MBA from Columbia.

Glenn Elkins

Glenn Elkins is the President of Bay Wire, Inc.

Alan Engel

Alan has spent the last twenty years growing and managing the Engel family apartment business S-101 Management. Prior to that he worked for Price Waterhouse in San Francisco. Alan is an active volunteer, fundraiser and board member. He was a Board Member of the Yavneh Day School, Chair of Yavneh's annual fundraising campaign, a Vice President of the Silicon Valley Jewish Community Center, and a Vice President on the Board of Directors of Congregation Sinai in San Jose. He currently is on the AIPAC Northern California Board of Directors, is a member of the AIPAC National Council, and sits on the board of Beth Jacob. He also current serves on the Board of Directors of the Housing Industry Foundation, an organization that works to prevent homelessness.

Miriam Friedkin

Malka Katzin

Malka is currently the Global Manager for Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) Knowledge Practice based in the San Francisco office, where she is responsible for knowledge-related communications, technology platforms and business architecture and information management.  She previously served as BCG's Regional Knowledge Manager for Asia-Pacific based out of Hong Kong.  She has also worked in the Product Evaluation Group at Pfizer, providing the commercial perspective to product development efforts in the Pain and Inflammation therapeutic area and at Boston Scientific in the Marketing Science group, offering strategic guidance and market research to the Cardiovascular line marketing teams. Malka began her career in the New York office of BCG.

On a personal note, she and husband Josh live in Oakland and are part of the Beth Jacob community.  They have a daughter Sonya (4) at Gan Mah Tov and a son Leo (1.5).  While working in Hong Kong, Malka served as a board member at the Carmel School of Hong Kong, an accredited Jewish day school following US-Style curriculum and Modern Orthodox principles.  Malka was raised in Atlanta and is a graduate of Torah Day School of Atlanta and Yeshiva Atlanta.  She is also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.  She will join the board as non-parent community member. We look forward to her active engagement in the next phase of strategic planning among other duties. 

Dr. Brian Kaye

Brian has been involved with OHDS since its inception, as his daughter Naomi was the very first student signed up to attend OHDS. Brian is a doctor with a specialty in rheumatology, arthritis and autoimmune diseases, with a practice in Berkeley and Orinda. He is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Brian is also very active in the Jewish community. He is a past-president, co-founder and current board member of the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, past-president of Oakland Hebrew Day School, and is currently serving as President of the Beth Jacob Congregation. Brian has a BA from Princeton University and an MD from Baylor College of Medicine.

Phillip Ross, M.D.

Phil is a doctor with a specialty in urology. Phillip has played an active, leadership role in numerous Jewish organizations over the past 20 years in Montreal and here in the Bay Area. He is currently a board member of Congregation Beth Jacob in Oakland where he is also co-chair of the membership committee. Phil earned his Doctor of Medicine at University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, NY. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at University of Colorado, in Boulder, CO.

Dean Rubinson

Dean works in real estate development for Ellis Partners. Dean is a licensed civil engineer and has practiced as a consulting engineer for over eight years on complex infrastructure projects throughout the U.S. Previously, Dean was the Director of Project Management for CB Richard Ellis' San Francisco office, where he provided development and construction consulting services to landlords and tenants throughout the Bay Area. He also served as Director of Development for the Penobscot Corporation. Dean holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Columbia University.

Catherine Shachat

Catherine Shachat is the Director of Benefits and Human Resources Information Systems for Children’s Hospital in Oakland. She previously worked for Kaiser Permanente and GATX Capital Corporation in a variety of roles including senior vice president and managing director - Human Resources. She has a BA from UC Santa Barbara and an MBA from UC Berkeley.

Gerald Yanowitz

Jerry is Vice President Federal Affairs for the California Cable and Telecommunications Association. Jerry has a long record of lay leadership roles on the local and national levels. He is a Member of the UJC Budget, Financial Relations and Fair Share Dues Committees, Past Chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the East Bay, Past President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Northern California Region), and Past President of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay. Jerry has a BA from Antioch College.