We Empower Changemakers
Ignite new Jewish ideas with significant, early stage grant funding
Grow personal skills and community connections through experiences and mentorship
Celebrate our impact and the visionary leaders that make it possible
Premier Professional Development Community: Wisdom Pairings
We are fired up by the talent and wisdom that already resides in our community, and we love what happens when generations come together to share their life experiences. Wisdom Pairings, our mentorship community, brings people together for meaningful conversations that can blossom into ongoing relationships. We know that when someone else understands your idea, and can help enable it, your spark can become a fire! And we’re proud that Wisdom Pairings has helped people take bold personal steps forward, broaden their skillsets and find new career paths.
FIND A MENTOR
Wisdom Pairings mentors are a curated group of seasoned entrepreneurs and niche subject experts who wish to steward their expertise by advising the Jewish Atlanta community.
Head of Organizational Development/Co-Founder at HIVE Talent Acquisition Firm LLC
Dynamic senior leader and community builder with global experience in general management, HR, sales & marketing, organizational development and corporate integration with P&L responsibility at both start-ups and larger enterprises. Proven track record of leading teams and exceeding revenue targets.
Electrical Engineering Ph.D. with a proven track record of research ability, innovation, product development, and problem solving. Naturally adept at conceiving creative solutions, novel methods, and developing new ideas. Clear technical communicator, author of more than 20 publications in engineering journals, proceedings, and a patent pending. Careful prioritization of work plans by coordination of goals and deliverables; taking necessary steps to complete projects. Forward thinking anticipation of future trends, possibilities, and implications. He is currently serving as Research Faculty at Georgia Tech Research Institute in the Electro-optical Systems Laboratory. His research focus is on semiconductors, photonic systems, electronic warfare, and RF electronics. he also teaches in the GA Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Solution-oriented and passionate Organizational Effectiveness and Change Management leader with expertise in developing and implementing strategies that mitigate the impact of change, enhance team effectiveness and develop organizational capability. A trusted advisor and skilled communicator, highly successful in coaching executives on the people impacts of change and offering professional development programs to retain key talent and ensure business continuity. She currently works as an Organizational Design Consultant for Georgia Tech.
Innovation Advisory Committee
Federation Innovation is shaped and steered by a fascinating and eclectic group of people who are all high-level thinkers, doers, and innovators themselves! We’re always looking for people who might want to share their time and talent with us.
Ally Berman is a trademark and copyright attorney. She received her BBA from University of Michigan and her JD from Emory University. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Ally is an alumna of Moishe House Palo Alto, and she led Emory Law’s inaugural itrek trip in 2019. She serves on the Board of Trustees of University of Michigan’s Hillel and lives in Atlanta with her husband.
Richard is Associate Vice President for strategic Initiatives for Innovation Research at the University of South Florida, visiting social entrepreneurship professor in Muma College of Business, and a professor in the institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation. He loves teaching our community about framing their ideas around solving problems.
Jill Bernstein has over 11 years of public accounting experience serving public and private companies (Retail, non-profit, healthcare, aerospace and defense, and financial services), most recently focused on both the national retail practice and local non-profit space. She has B.S. from Georgetown University, Masters of Accounting from Vanderbilt University, and is a licensed CPA, Senior manager – Audit at Deloitte. She is a Georgetown club of Georgia board member and alumni interviewer for Georgetown.
I help people buy and sell homes. I am passionate about learning. Innovation fuels me because “that’s just the way we’ve always done it” depresses me.
Lance Einstein is a partner in MendenFreiman’s tax controversy, tax planning and compliance, and estate planning practice areas. He joined the firm in 2019 and has extensive experience representing clients that have controversies and compliance issues with the Internal Revenue Service and various state tax agencies. Lance assists clients with devising and implementing estate plans that accomplish their goals with minimal disruption and tax costs.
Josh is an Atlanta born entrepreneur with a focus in the Technology/Healthcare arena as well as the Real Estate space. Experience across the Jewish community, with an emphasis on helping new small Jewish initiatives thrive, fundraising, and non-profit operations.
Joey works for Zavala Capital Group, a commercial real estate company investing in workforce, value-add apartment communities in the southeastern US. As a member of the Radow Family Foundation, Joey is active in many of the different initiatives involving the Jewish community both in and outside of Atlanta. Joey also serves on the board of directors at Wisconsin Badger Camp, a non-profit camp for developmentally disabled adults. When not working, Joey likes to spend time with his chocolate lab, Ryder, travel, and enjoy great wine. After a proofread from his wife, Joey also loves spending time with his wife, Lisa.
I serve on the Global Peoplehood committee in addition to the Innovation Fund committee. I’m passionate about change and improvement when needed and I want to continue to see our Jewish community grow and become stronger. Professionally, I have similar goals when I meet with clients and help them understand financial tools and strategies available to them. I’ve been a financial advisor for over 11 years and am passionate about helping Jewish families, professionals and business owners achieve their goals with minimal costs and confusion.
Heads up the Allocations committee and is a very active community member, Wexner alum and leading the Maccabi games.
Jason has worked in sales for over 10 years and is currently a Senior Manager of Commercial Account Sales at Informatica, the leader in Cloud Data Management. Jason has been active in the Atlanta Jewish community since he was a child and currently serves as a board member for the Weinstein Foundation. In his spare time, Jason loves to travel to new places, explore new restaurants around town, and spend time with friends and family.
Dana's recruiting experience covers a wide range of industries such as accounting and finance, construction, engineering, light industrial and warehousing, sales and marketing, with a specialty in legal recruiting. Dana is a graduate of the private women's college, Agnes Scott, located in Decatur, Georgia. She returns to campus multiple times a year to support their Summit program by volunteering for HR panels, LinkedIn seminars, interview preparation and other human resources related needs. Outside of work, Dana enjoys spending time outdoors at sporting and live music events with her loving husband Dustin, their son Deagan and dog, Gustav.
I run sales & marketing for the digital media company PlayOn! Sports. I am passionate and an expert at driving Jori crazy. I think that Innovation fuels change and will help the Jewish community adapt to continue to serve the needs of the Jewish people.
I work with Mark Rothberg, so every day is an exercise in patience. I love solving puzzles, so I’m happiest whenever I get the chance to take a big complicated problem and break it down into digestible pieces to fix it. Innovation spurs progress, and it’s very exciting to see how even the smallest ideas (or new ways of looking at existing ideas) can disrupt the norm and create a ripple effect of positive change in a community.
Ryan is currently a Principal at RefrigiWear, Inc. with over ten years of experience at the company. Prior to joining RefrigiWear, Ryan had experience as the Vice President of Operations at a cold storage operating company and real estate development firm. Ryan received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Denver and his EMBA through the executive program at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. Ryan lives in Sandy Springs with his wife and three children, Lucy (11), Milo (8), and Nora (7). Ryan’s thoughts on Jewish Innovation: “Innovation is what will allow the Jewish Community to thrive next year and ten years and twenty years from now. What we have been doing may or may not work tomorrow and we need to make sure we are attuned to this and be proactive where necessary.”
I volunteer, cook, read, and workout. I am passionate about my family, the disabilities community, and the continuity of our religion. As a former corporate/securities attorney, I love keeping up with the business world as an outsider. Innovation fuels me because I learn more than I share; I need to be a lifelong learner, so this fits right into my plan.
Think Tank Members
Journalist turned innovator turned innovation coach, Matthew also enjoy running long distances. After living the dream of becoming a professional sports reporter, he realized corporate newspaper journalism is not a great place to be... so he went back to school and ended up in innovation by chance after realizing journalism skills were a perfect fit for human-centered Design Thinking. He worked in financial technology innovation at First Data for about five years, detoured back into sports as a product manager at Turner Sports/NBA.com, and now consults and coaches human-centered innovation teams at Nationwide Insurance as an Innovation Catalyst.
Katherine Crosby is a first-year MBA student at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business. From 2017-2020, Katherine served as Community Programming Manager for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, where she led the organization's guest programming and community engagement initiatives. Previously, Katherine worked in New York at Creative Artists Agency, a top international talent agency, most recently as an Agent Trainee in the Alternative Television Department. She graduated from Harvard University in 2014 with a concentration in Psychology, a secondary field in Dramatic Arts, and a citation in Spanish before beginning her professional career. She lives in Smyrna with her husband and three rescue pets and is an active community volunteer.
Arielle Klebanoff is the regional director at Jewish Kids Groups, an innovative Jewish education model started in Atlanta and poised for national expansion. Arielle helped grow the organization from serving 12 kids in a garage in 2011 to hundreds of students across six Atlanta locations today. Arielle graduated from Georgia State University where she studied sociology and education, and earned her master’s degree in Creative and Innovative Education. Arielle grew up in Virginia Beach, but has lived in Atlanta since 2009. She is a big fan of Atlanta restaurants and the Beltline.
He has led transformations at Delta Air Lines, IBM and Grant Thornton by conducting initial issue assessments, creating vision and strategy through collaborative solution design and finally successful strategy implementation. He is current a Program Manager on Delta's IT Transformation team launching an office in India and delivering value-add projects with strategic IT vendors.
Federation Innovation Grants
We are also grant makers, providing different levels of funding to help new ideas take flight.
Innovation Calendar
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Federation Innovation By The Numbers
$500k
INVESTED IN COMMUNITY INNOVATION GRANTS
300
PAIRS OF PEOPLE CURATED IN DEEP MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION
10
COMMUNITY IDEA GENERATION & COLLABORATION SESSIONS
Upcoming Events
Wisdom Pairings
August 27 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
We are offering Wisdom Pairings twice on the same day! You can choose to attend the session that fit...