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.

Glenn Elkins

Treasurer

Glenn Elkins is the President of Bay Wire, Inc.

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.

Rabbi Yonatan Cohen

Rabbi Yonatan Cohen is the Rabbi at Berkeley’s Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley. Under R. Cohen’s leadership over the last six years, Congregation Beth Israel has significantly grown its membership and broadened its educational programming for youth and adults. R. Cohen is also a respected, passionate teacher both in the shul and broader community.  R. Cohen will join the board as a “community leader at large” working in the areas of board development, governance, fundraising and community marketing.  He and his wife Frayda have two young sons.  

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.

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.

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.

JB Leibovitch

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.

Jessica Minkoff

Jessica Minkoff is an active community volunteer, mom and architect.  She brings a wealth of experience having served on the Head Royce Alumni Council, Head Royce Development Committee, and various Jewish Federation/Foundation and AIPAC committees.  She is also a recent Wexner Fellow. She will play an active role in fundraising and strategic planning.  She and her husband Dan have three children, the oldest is in Kindergarten at OHDS.  They are members of Congregation Beth Jacob.

David Paulson

David Paulson is an attorney at the international law firm of Jones Day.  He will help us with audit, building/facilities and finance related issues.  He has strong board experience having spent the last ten years on the board of a regionalcharter school association where he was on the executive committee and served on the audit and building/facilities committees.  He and his wife Debbie Weinstein have two children in Grades 2 and 6 at OHDS.  They are members of Temple Beth Abraham. 

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.

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.