Biographies

JECEI National Staff

Dr. Patricia Bidol Padva, Executive Director

Prior to becoming part of the JECEI staff, Patricia Bidol Padva, PhD. was an international consultant in Jewish education whose work included the creation of sustainable consensus-based community plans, enabling organizations to successfully engage in transformative change, coaching lay and professional leaders, working with teams on becoming learning communities and the use of generative thinking in joint planning initiatives.

She has extensive experience consulting in Jewish Early Childhood education. She has worked with the Early Childhood Initiative of the Jewish Community Federation of the San Francisco and the Bay Area to create a consensus-based business plan for compensation and finance, quality ECJE and engaging parents, worked with the Jewish communities of Miami-Dade and West Palm Beach, Florida to implement Project Kavod: Improving the Culture of Employment in Jewish Early Childhood Education, provided research on the Friedman Commission for Jewish Education's Synagogue Enhancement Project and worked with Early Childhood Directors and Educators at CAJE conferences and in their communities. She has been a school superintendent and a Dean of Education at the National College of Education's Urban Campus that included an early childhood department. Her Ph. D. is from the University of Michigan in educational psychology with a major in complex change. She is a core faculty member of the American University - NTL's Organization Development and Change Masters Program.

Dr. Roberta Louis Goodman, Director of Research and Standards

Prior to joining JECEI, Dr. Roberta Louis Goodman completed five years as Director for Distance Learning for Siegal College of Judaic Studies located in Cleveland where she retains an adjunct faculty position. Dr. Goodman received her doctorate in adult education from Teachers College/Columbia University, an M.A. in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and an M.A. in education focusing on educational psychology from the University of Southern California. Dr. Goodman's work as a researcher began with the Council for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE, now the Mandel Foundation) where she was on the research team that focused on an effort to improve Jewish education on a community wide basis and helped conduct a national study of Jewish educational personnel. Since then, most of her evaluation and research work has been done through consulting for central agencies for Jewish education, federations, and national and international organizations. Her work in early childhood includes action research for Project Kavod and Project Kavod II, efforts to raise the salaries and benefits of early childhood Jewish educators. Dr. Goodman's publications include curricula, student materials, and articles in the areas of faith development and spirituality, research and evaluation, adult education, Jewish educational personnel, and grant writing. She is a co-editor of What We NOW Know about Jewish Education (Torah Aura, 2008), which received the National Jewish Book Award.

Irene Lustgarten, Director of Jewish Life and Learning Communities

Irene's experience as a Jewish educator includes a wide range of both informal and formal settings. For 15 years, Irene held the position of Director of Education leading both the synagogue preschool and the congregational school. During her long career, she has been a Judaic studies teacher at a Solomon Schechter Day School and classroom teacher in a number of congregational schools and a day-camp director. Most recently, Irene served as the Director of Westchester Services for the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York, advancing the quality of Jewish learning and living in 90 Jewish schools in the community. She holds a teaching license from the Israeli Ministry of Education and has a BA from Rutgers University in Hebraic Studies. An alumna of the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute and a member of Kehilliyot (a CoP Meta-Community for Jewish Professionals), Irene also has an honorary doctorate in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Masters Degree in Business and Policy Studies with a concentration in non-profit management from Empire State College.

Administrative Staff

Dori Kaplan, Executive Assistant to the Executive Director

Dori Kaplan has many years of experience working in the Jewish communal world and brings to us her enjoyment in working with people and her excellent computer and organizational skills. Dori joined the JECEI staff in December, 2009.

Penny Klein, Assistant to Director of Research and Standards

Penny splits her time between working with JECEI and creating hats as the designer and owner of My 2 Cents Millinery. She received her BA in English Literature and Philosophy from Queens College CUNY, and has worked as a copywriter, as well as a fashion journalist and freelancer for various publications. Penny studied voice and has traveled with a professional a cappella group and continues to perform with a band in her spare time. She is proud to have completed her first triathlon in September and hopes to swim, bike and run her way onto her next one this coming July (in spite of all the jellyfish). Penny hails from the small town of Brooklyn, NY and has recently made the move to a quiet area called Manhattan.

Consultants

Ellen Brosbe

Ellen has been on staff of the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties since 1996. Through JECEI, she is working with T’enna preschool of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, California.

While at the BJE, Ellen has worked in family education with a focus on families with young children. More recently, Ellen directed Jewish Everyday Moments in School (JEMS), a professional development series for teachers in early childhood programs. She currently coordinates the ECE leadership council (Mifgash) and is the lead director on the Focus on Excellence Project, a pilot program exploring indicators of excellence in the diverse early childhood Jewish programs of the area.

Ellen is currently participating in the bay area Mandel Teacher Educator Institute. She is a former adjunct faculty member of the Consortium for the Future of the Jewish Family. She is a contributing author to Celebrating the New Moon (Sue Berrin, editor) and Growing Together: Resources, Programs, and Experiences for Jewish Family Education (Jeffrey Schein and Judith S. Schiller, editors). She holds 4 teaching credentials and a Masters in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena. Her favorite question is “what are you reading?”

Dr. Lori Geismar Ryan

Dr. Lori Geismar Ryan is currently working with JECEI schools in the Denver-Boulder and Milwaukee communities. During Phase I of JECEI's work, Lori was the coach for Moriah Early Childhood Center in Deerfield, Illinois. From 1988-2008 Lori was the pedagogical coordinator and director of Clayton School District's Family Center in St. Louis, Missouri, a public school early childhood and parenting education program that offers learning experiences for families beginning in infancy from 1988-2008. Prior to joining the Family Center, Lori earned her Ph.D. in early childhood education/research from the State University of New York at Buffalo and held the position of Assistant Professor of Early Education at University of Missouri-St. Louis. Clayton Schools' Family Center is part of a network of educators (along with The College School and St. Michael School) who learn together, engage in collaborative inquiry, host visitors and engage in initiatives and projects with educators from Reggio Emilia and throughout North America to support education based on a strong image of children, teachers and parents. Lori's interests include cultivating relationship-based, constructivist teaching and learning communities for children, parents, and teachers; facilitating teacher-leadership and teacher-research, and nurturing school change through systems-thinking approaches. She recently co-authored a chapter called "The Atelier: A System of Physical and Conceptual Spaces" in the book In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of North America (2005). Lori is the parent of two sons, Maxwell and Sam, and serves on the Education Steering Committee at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis.

Trixie Levy

Trixie Levy, who lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has degrees in Educational Psychology and School Management and has participated in NAEYC conferences, Reggio Emilia Study Groups, Documentation Seminars, and Project Zero. Trixie has also worked as both a bilingual kindergarten teacher and a "pedagogista," before founding her own school (Puertabierta Kindergarten). This school includes a Nest (Nido) for children age 3 to 18 months, and a Kindergarten for children ages 2 to 5. The school aims to provide quality education for young children, and this goal is achieved through ongoing assessment, study, and professional development. Trixie assists and supports teachers, works with families, and participates in the pedagogical practice of the school. In addition, she works as Educational Psychologist in Tarbut School, the largest Jewish Day School in Buenos Aires.

Sonya Shoptaugh

Sonya Shoptaugh is a designer and educational consultant who works around the country supporting innovative early childhood initiatives. She helped to start the Model Early Learning Center (MELC) in Washington D.C. for low income families located at the Capital Children's Museum, the only school in the world to have been officially accredited by Reggio Children, Italy. Under the Ohio Department of Education, she worked with public schools to develop study groups of educators of young children located in all regions of the state. She was the artistic director for the creation of "Where Ideas Learn to Fly," an exhibit based on the work of the study groups and experiences of children, families and teachers. Sonya has a passion for promoting the creative spirit as a photographer, dancer and musician. She has co-authored numerous articles and is currently working on a book about her experiences in Washington D.C. entitled, Belonging to Hope.

Dr. Naama Zoran

Dr. Naama Zoran is a developmental psychologist, and has her PH.D in Education. Naama is a private consultant for day care centers, preschools and elementary schools throughout Israel for the past 28 years. She initiated a number of different early childhood projects including: establishing a core curriculum for two year olds, creating an Early Childhood program in Tel – Chai College in Northern Israel and bringing and leading the Reggio Emilia Approach to Israel. Naama has developed unique models for consultation with EC directors and consultants in Israel and the USA. For the last four years she has organized a National Early Childhood Conference in Israel that focuses on "pedagogical awareness". She presents regularly at the NAEYC Annual Conference and the NAEYC Institute for Professional Development. Naama lives in Haifa, Israel with her husband and four children.

Jewish Education ECE Specialists

Judi Morosohk, CAJE Colorado

Judi Morosohk is the ECE Specialist at CAJE in Denver, managing and implementing an ECE Initiative in the Denver/Boulder Jewish Community. She holds a Bachelors degree in Elementary/Special Education from the University of Delaware and a Masters degree in Educational Psychology and Early Childhood/Special Education from the University of Colorado at Denver. Judi has worked in the field of early childhood education since 1978, as a teacher, ECE director, consultant, coach and trainer in private centers, Head Start and Public School settings. She began her career as a therapeutic teacher at Mapletree Day Treatment Center in Boulder, Colorado working as a member of an inter-disciplinary team, supporting families and their young children who were experiencing severe emotional struggles. From 1989-2002 she worked at the Boulder Jewish Community Center Preschool, initially as a teacher and for ten years, as a director and co-director of the program. As the Professional Development Manager of the Early Care and Education Council of Boulder County, she developed and led training sessions and projects aimed at raising the quality of early childhood education in Boulder County. She has presented trainings on a wide variety of topics including a keynote speech on Emotionally Responsive Care Giving at the 2005 Colorado Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC) Conference. Judi has always loved bringing music into the lives of young children and presently leads music at monthly Family School gatherings at Congregation Har Hashem in Boulder.