Eve Cohen
President, Women’s Alliance

Apart from her current position, Eve Cohen has also served as campaign chair and president of the Marin and South Peninsula regions. She was an active member of the boards of Brandeis Hillel Day School and Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School. She was a Fellow in the first Wexner Heritage Foundation program in San Francisco. She has served twice on the Federation board of directors and has served on the Overseas, Finance, and Leadership Development committees.

Eve is married to Bruce and they have three children — Rebecca, Zachariah and Leah. This is her 11th trip to Israel; and certainly will not be her last.

Lisa Meitus
Mission Co-Chair

Lisa Meitus grew up in Chicago. She attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, and then attended Northwestern Law School. She moved to the Bay Area in April 1999. She has been involved with the Federation in several capacities. She is currently co-president of the Marin Women’s Alliance and a member of the Federation’s board in the city.

Susan Sims
Mission Co-Chair

Susan was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Upon receiving her BA in communications from Tulane University, she went to work as a buyer for various Federated Department Stores in Texas and Florida. She met her husband and moved to Southern California, where she became a buyer for The Broadway and then a sales representative for a menswear manufacturer. Her husband was transferred to Denver, where they lived for five years. In Denver Susan was part of the Federation’s outreach committee, welcoming new families to the Denver area. Susan and her family moved back to Silicon Valley in 2001, where she has been active in the women’s division in programming and as vice campaign chair. She started working for Alain Pinel in 2003.

Susan has three children, Josh, 13 ½; Emily, 11; and Rachel, 7 1/2.

Marilyn Dobbs Higuera
Campaign Chair, Women’s Alliance

Marilyn is pleased to be making her fifth trip to Israel. Marilyn started her involvement with the Women’s Alliance in 1981 when she went with a very special group of San Francisco women to Israel and also helped dedicate a community center in Tel Hanon on behalf of her family.

Marilyn has counted her volunteer commitment to Federation as one of her defining activities. Besides holding every Campaign position possible in the Women’s Alliance, she chaired the Hillel subcommittee on planning and allocations for the last few years. She is presently overall campaign chair for the Women’s Alliance.

Marilyn is grandma to two wonderful boys, and spends her days working as an accountant in the non-profit community.

Laura Landress
Marin Campaign Chair

After receiving a BS in business from SUNY Buffalo, Laura entered the fashion industry, where she worked for more than ten years. For the past decade she has been raising her three children while holding various volunteer positions. Currently she is chair of the Marin Women’s Alliance, and she has served as Marin’s Power of One chair in the past. A number of years ago she started a community health network to help those in need at the local level.

Laura enjoys traveling, hiking, biking, and schmoozing.

Lori Davidovitz

Lori was born and raised in San Francisco and on the Peninsula. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology and sociology. Lori loves Los Angeles and made it her home. She began working in the oil and gas industry, including a stint at Occidental Petroleum where she reported directly to Armand Hammer himself. Eventually she decided she had had enough of the oil and gas world and started a bookkeeping business out of her house, where she could remain at home with her three boys. In 1998 she and her family moved to Marin. Wherever Lori has lived, she has always been actively involved in the Jewish community. Lori has also served on the board of directors for Heschel Day School, the Federation and currently for Congregation Kol Shofar. This will be Lori’s first trip to Israel!

Vanessa Friedman

Vanessa Friedman made her first trip to Israel in 1985 as part of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program.  The trip was a defining one, as her husband, Marty, was one of her “classmates.”  From there, she graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in international development and went on to receive her M.A. in international development from American University.
 
Returning to Ann Arbor for her husband’s graduate work, Vanessa worked at the Fairlane Training and Development Center for the Ford Motor Company.  After getting married, Vanessa and Marty returned to Israel together on a NY Federation mission in 1996.  Following that they moved to Manhattan where Vanessa worked in the training and development department of Clinique, a division of Estee Lauder.
 
Vanessa is currently the manager of the Friedman family, which is based in Kentfield.  She has two daughters, 8 and 5, and the four Friedmans made their first family trip to Israel in September, 2006.

Susan Guthart
Vice President of the Osher Marin JCC board of Directors

Susan is currently the vice president of the Osher Marin JCC board of directors and serves on the Executive and Nominations/Leadership committees as well as the Renovation, Strategic Planning and Campus Partner Planning task forces. Susan also belongs to Congregation Rodef Sholom and is actively involved with both Brandeis Hillel Day School and ECE parent associations as well as the Jewish Community Federation. She is a registered nurse by trade and is currently a full-time mother. She has also worked in the infirmary for Camp Newman. Susan is married to Jonathan, and has three children, Graham (age 8), Jackson (age 6) and Grace (age 3). Susan currently lives in San Rafael and enjoys outdoor adventures.

Eileen Lynette

Eileen grew up in Brooklyn, New York and attended undergraduate school in Buffalo, New York. She and her partner moved to San Francisco in 1976 to escape the cold and snow. Eileen worked for over 25 years in healthcare, first as a nurse and then in various administrative positions developing and overseeing programs for older and disabled adults.

About six years ago Eileen did a mid-life career change and became a realtor. She works in San Francisco representing buyers and sellers of residential and small commercial properties and finds the work to be extremely satisfying and fun! She lives in Noe Valley with Char, her partner of 33 years, Emma the Labrador retriever, and Ivy the cat.

Char McCaskey

After receiving a master’s degree in clinical psychology & practicing as a clinical psychologist in Michigan, Char decided she wasn't going to save the world so she went back to the University of Michigan for an MBA. After graduating she moved to Silicon Valley & started her career in the computer industry. She held various positions in human resources at Data General, Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics, finally ending up as vice president of HR at Excite.

After her husband’s company went public in 1999, Char left the computer industry and relocated to London for one year. Since returning to the valley, she has been involved with the Montalvo Service Group, the Foothill Club and the Grand View League. But her real passion is travel and seeing the world.

She has traveled to Israel three times and has now visited 108 countries.

Jamie Myers

Jamie was born in Los Angeles and migrated up to the Bay Area in 1976 at the age of 21. She worked at and owned a hair salon in San Francisco while concurrently finishing her BA in history from San Francisco State University. In 1980 she met her husband Mark Myers at an ORT fundraiser. They were married in 1982 and moved to Orinda.

Jamie has served on the boards of the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and participated in Federation and Young Leadership Development groups. Jamie sold her salon in 1984 when her first child was born. She is the proud mother of David (22) and Eve (20). Raising her two children and participating on the boards of her children’s schools has been her passion over the last 22 years. With both children away at college, Jamie has filled her time volunteering for ASAP at Mission High School in San Francisco, where she helps find and fund summer opportunities for underprivileged students as well as helping them with their college applications and scholarships. Jamie’s first trip to Israel was in 1969 and her last in 1972 so, needless to say, this is a much-anticipated return to a country where she feels at home.

Jacqueline Neuwirth Swire

Jacqueline’s background includes over 13 years of fundraising and development. She has worked with clients in the political, corporate and nonprofit sectors in the areas of donor development, major gift solicitation, capital campaigns, event planning, board development and fundraising. Currently, Jacqueline serves as a volunteer board member for the Ross School Foundation and the Marin Theatre Company. Jacqueline lives in Ross with her husband, Stephen Swire, and two children, Aislinn, nine years old, and Samuel, four years old, who give her life the truest of meaning.

Jacqueline enjoys skiing, hiking and most anything that is outdoors. She loves to travel, is passionate about many issues and still dreams of changing the world.

Jordana Perman

Jordana was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She lived in Minnesota and Oregon before landing in Marin County six years ago. A graduate from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, Jordana also holds an MA degree in community development and social policy from the University of Minnesota. Jordana has held volunteer leadership positions with the Jewish Community Federation and other nonprofit organizations for over 20 years and is a graduate of the Wexner Heritage Jewish Leadership program (Portland, 1997).

Currently, Jordana is a household CEO with two kids (Emily, 11 and Jacob, 8), married to Michael Perman. She enjoys adventure travel, outdoor and fitness activities and plays a mean game of Scrabble. She will be bringing her travel Scrabble set with her to Israel. This Women’s Alliance mission will be Jordana’s fourth trip to Israel.

Karen Raz
Former Co-President, Marin Women’s Alliance

Karen was born and raised in Montreal, and after college moved to Israel, where she continued to study and work in the diamond industry. After nine wonderful years, she moved to San Francisco, where she continued to work in the diamond and jewelry business. She has two children who attend Brandeis, and after 18 years in beautiful California still feels a deep connection and love for Israel.

Karen was co-president of the Marin Women’s Alliance and co-campaign chair. It was a huge part of her life and she’s doing her best to stay involved. She enjoys traveling, skiing and hanging out with her kids. Karen is committed to tikkun olam (healing the world).

Helene Siegel-Fotos

Helene was born in New York City, but spent the bulk of her childhood in Southern California. In 1985 she returned to New York to finish her degree at Columbia University. Her focus was in architecture, but because she wanted to study a broad range of art, she wound up with a degree in art history. Helene married her first husband in 1989 and had two wonderful children, sons Adam, 15, and Sam, 12. In 1997 she divorced aforementioned husband, and shortly after met her current husband, Bill Fotos. The Siegel-Fotos family moved back to California seven years ago, but this time to the “other” state, northern California. Their first stop was Novato, but shortly after moving in Helene realized that, with her children at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Rafael, she had become a slave to morning traffic on 101. Five years later the family moved to Mill Valley, where both boys are now in public school and extremely happy. Technically a stay-at-home mom, Helene considers herself a professional volunteer, sharing her time between Mill Valley Middle School, Tamalpais High School, the Jewish Community Federation, and, recently, the California Film Institute.

Helene, the daughter of a staunch Zionist who spends at least one third to one half of each year in Israel, has been to Israel several times. Her mother and her mother’s significant other produce short public-relations DVDs spotlighting the many positive aspects of Israeli culture through soft news reports. They work with IBA television, and because of this Helene has been fortunate to have met many Israeli journalists and political activists.

Deborah Stadtner

Deborah grew up in San Diego, California and graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor of science degree in business administration. Deborah has spent the last 17 years working in the market research industry.

Deborah moved to the Bay Area in 1988, where she met her husband, Larry Stadtner, at a Federation YAD event. They have four children: Joshua, 15, Rebecca, 13, Jonathan, 8, and Jacob, 5.

Currently, Deborah is serving as the Marin campus parent association president at Brandeis Hillel Day School, where two of her children attend. She also has just finished volunteering on the Federation committee for Stand Up Marin. Deborah is an active member of Congregation Kol Shofar and AIPAC.

This will be her first trip to Israel.

Alyssa Taubman
Board Member, Women’s Alliance

Alyssa grew up in the burbs of Detroit and emigrated to California upon matriculating from eight years and three degrees (BA, BA in music and JD) from the University of Michigan (so, she was slow…). She practiced law at Heller Ehrman in San Francisco, then worked as a project manager developing industrial parks and office buildings in the East Bay. Finally she heeded the siren songs of Bergdorf’s and Carnegie Hall and joined Salomon Brothers in New York, and then went to Los Angeles as a real estate investment banker for the next seven years (or 42 years in dog years…). While in LA, Alyssa met and married her husband Robert (but didn’t live with him until 2 ½ years later…), who lived in Marin. She now sells homes, tries to keep up with schlepping her two daughters (Talia, 11 and Mia, 9) to their myriad activities, sits on too many boards (SF Opera Guild, Bureau of Jewish Education, Women’s Alliance, Interlochen Center for the Arts, various Ross School committees), bakes Hungarian pastries, cooks too much, sleeps and exercises too little, and misses Bergdorf’s and Carnegie Hall. This is Alyssa’s first physical trip to Israel (hard to believe), though she has visited often spiritually. Her primary identity is as daughter of a Holocaust survivor.

Debbie Toizer

These days Debbie is a stay-at-home mom. She spends most of her time volunteering at her children’s schools and shuttling the three of them around Marin to their various activities. She spent her childhood growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and went to the University of Wisconsin for her undergraduate degree. Debbie then spent five years in Chicago getting a law degree and working as a real estate attorney, after which she and her family moved to Paris for five years. Living in California for seven years now, Debbie loves it and plans to stay. She can't wait to return to Israel, which she has visited only once before, while in high school.

Carol Weitz

Carol has been active in insurance- and brokerage-related fields since 1972, and in 1985 became manager of Backs To Work, a rehabilitation facility geared to those with back injuries. Following the death of her husband in 2001, she founded Weitz Medical Management to provide full-service office management for physicians and experts in a variety of disciplines of medicine. Carol is a member of the Board of The Auxiliary, UCSF/Mount Zion, and a member of Congregation Beth Sholom, serving for many years as chair of their special events committee. In addition to her work and local friends, she travels regularly to Los Angeles to be with her two physician children and five grandchildren.

Emily Wu

Emily has lived in the Bay Area for her entire life, except for two years when she attended the University of Michigan Business School, where she met Char, her roommate on the trip. She grew up in Palo Alto and Saratoga and attended UC Berkeley, where she majored in business administration. Emily currently lives in Los Altos with her husband Drew and children Allison, 17, and Daniel, 13, who recently celebrated his bar mitzvah at Congregation Beth Am.

Emily converted to Judaism 18 years ago, and was a b’nai mitzvot as well. This will be her first journey to Israel. Emily enjoys reading, travel, exercise, knitting and jewelry making. She currently works at Peninsula Youth Theatre, a local children’s theatre in Mountain View, as development director.

Fay Zenoff

Fay Zenoff resides in Tiburon with her two daughters, both students at Brandeis Hillel Day school, where Fay is the director of institutional advancement.

Originally from Manhattan, Fay has lived in the Bay Area for the past ten years, where she has been involved in the Jewish community in various capacities. Professionally, Fay has broad-based experience in development, management strategy and marketing in both the private and public sectors. Her first encounter with the Federation was through the Women’s Alliance and the Community of Learning, in Marin.

At the age of 23, Fay made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel where she lived and worked for six years. Fay and her daughters are duel citizens (Israel & USA), and consider home both the Bay Area and Israel.

Fay holds an MBA degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She also attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a student during her junior year.

Recently divorced and abundantly grateful for all her blessings, Fay joins this mission looking forward to broadening her knowledge about the important work of the Federation, building relationships with the other women participants, deepening her spiritual self and reconnecting with Israel at this stage of life.

Judy Zimmerman
Former President, Women’s Alliance

Judy Zimmerman was born and raised in Fremont, Ohio. After attending Cornell University for two years from 1971 to 1973, Judy married her husband Steve and moved to San Francisco, where she finished her undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of San Francisco. Her business career has included stints working with Macy’s California in a variety of middle management roles; owning Bay Marketing, a wholesale business that represented a number of women’s sportswear lines; and most recently being involved as marketing director of Restaurant Realty Company.

Judy’s nonprofit work includes many years working for the Federation in the 1980s and early 1990s, including serving as Women’s Division — now Women’s Alliance — President in 1990-91. Judy and her family are members of Congregation Kol Shofar in Marin.

Judy’s biggest delight is her family, including husband Steve, daughter Joy and her husband Jason, her son Jacob and his girlfriend Aimee and her son Josh and his girlfriend Lauren. In her spare time she likes to cook, garden, entertain, go to the gym, renovate and shop.

Maxine Epstein
Director, Women’s Alliance Marin Region

Upon receiving her double masters in Jewish communal service and social work from Hebrew Union College and the University of Southern California nearly 25 years ago, Maxine immediately made aliyah to Israel where she lived and worked for nearly four years. She lectured at the University of Haifa in the School of Social Work and co-authored Shalom-Bayit: A Follow-Up Study of Battered Women in Israel.

Maxine is the current development director of the Federation’s Marin Region. Apart from her work as director of major gifts for almost two years, she has worked in the Marin region in a community-building and development capacity for the past 12 years. Maxine is the mother of twin seven-year-olds, which currently dictates her sense of humor!

Bab Frieberg
Associate Director, JCF Planning Department

Bab Freiberg has worked for the past four years on capital planning and allocations for our local Jewish agencies, and most recently on helping to design and implement the new Strategic Funding Initiative. Previously, Bab worked locally for Rubicon Programs and the Low Income Investment Fund and in New York for Seedco (a community development organization), Victim Services, and the NYC Comptroller. She has a master’s degree in public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and an economics degree from UC Berkeley. She is the mother of three girls (11, 8 & 5) and thrilled to go on her first trip to Israel!

Gabriana Marks
JCF Campaign Administrative Coordinator

Gabriana Marks grew up in the Bay Area and has been involved in the Jewish community her entire life. During her first year of college, she lived in Israel on a study and volunteer program. She’s currently taking an advanced-level Hebrew course and is thrilled to be returning to Israel.

Gabriana completed a degree in journalism (emphasis in broadcasting) and religion from the University of Southern California. She worked for CBS Radio in Los Angeles and San Francisco for five years, and she’s been published in a national women’s magazine. Gabriana currently lives in San Francisco. She loves to travel and to cook.