Our Team
Rachel Gildiner
Executive Director
Washington, D.C.
Rachel Gildiner
Executive Director
Washington, D.C.
Rachel Gildiner (she/her) is a leading expert in the field of Relational Engagement. Before becoming SRE's Executive Director, she served as Chief Engagement Officer at Hillel International, Executive Director of GatherDC (the premier relational platform for Jewish 20s & 30s in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area), and CEO of Gather, Inc.
Rachel has also used her relational approach to advance women's equity in the Jewish workplace and beyond. In 2019, she launched Year of the Jewish Woman, a vibrant Facebook community where female Jewish professionals and allies can connect and discuss key issues and challenges. She is a vocal advocate and published thought leader in this area.
Rachel has a B.A. in Sociology from Columbia University, a B.A. from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Modern Jewish Studies, an M.A. in Higher Education Administration from The George Washington University, and a Certificate in Experiential Jewish Education from Yeshiva University. She is also a certified Ayeka Soulful Jewish Educator and a current Schusterman Foundation Fellow. Rachel lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children.
Julian Felvinci
Operations Associate
Portland, Maine
Julian Felvinci
Operations Associate
Portland, Maine
Julian (pronouns: he/they) joined the SRE Network Team in October 2022 as the Operations Assistant and was promoted to Operations Associate in January 2024. In this role, he provides operations and administrative support to the SRE Network team to enable SRE to best serve its members and wider community in making positive change. He previously served as the Operations Coordinator for Save the World's Rivers, an environmental justice nonprofit, where he provided high-level executive and operations support. He is passionate about social, environmental, and gender justice as well as improving organizational efficiencies. Julian has also worked at Grove Collaborative, a Certified B Corporation, and as a Firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Southern Maine. Julian has enjoyed volunteering with Jewish community organizations and climate justice nonprofit groups. Born and raised in New York City, Julian now lives in the Greater Portland area of Maine.
Shaina Wasserman
Senior Director of Strategic Operations
Boston, Massachusetts
Shaina Wasserman
Senior Director of Strategic Operations
Boston, MA
Shaina (pronouns: she/her/hers) joined SRE Network as Director of Strategic Operations in February 2022 and was promoted to Senior Director of Strategic Operations in January 2024. An experienced Jewish educator and senior leader with over 20 years of experience in Jewish communal institutions across the country, Shaina has a strong commitment to gender equity and a track record of embedding respectful workplace practices within Jewish institutions. In her prior role as vice president of communal relations at J Street, Shaina introduced new workplace policies and practices, including bringing in DEI expertise and respectful workplace training, and created WNBA, an affinity group for women, non-binary people, and allies at J Street. She also completed the Ta’amod respectful workplace training led by Fran Sepler. Shaina has professional and volunteer experience in faith-based community organizing, Jewish service learning, synagogue life, programming and internal operations, having previously held roles with The Jewish Education Project in New York, Congregation Beth Am in Northern California, and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. She received her master's degrees in Jewish Nonprofit Management and in Jewish Education from HUC-JIR in Los Angeles and dual bachelor’s degrees in History and in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Shaina resides in Arlington, Massachusetts, where she enjoys hiking, completing the NYT Bee and crossword puzzles, and spending time with her nieces.
Allison Friedman
Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications
Delray Beach, Florida
Allison Friedman
Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications
Delray Beach, Florida
Allison Friedman (she/her) is thrilled to join SRE Network as the Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications. She comes to SRE Network with over a decade of experience using integrated marketing and multi-channel communications strategies to help mission-based organizations thrive.
She has previously held roles as Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Jewish Women International (women's empowerment and safety) and Communications Director at GatherDC (community organization for Jewish 20s and 30s in the DC-area). In addition, she has an array of marketing agency experience, where she has served as project lead for a number of clients in the social impact and Jewish community spaces including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, RootOne, The Jewish Education Project, among others.
Allison graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Communication Studies from the University of Michigan – Go Blue! She lives with her husband and two young children in Delray Beach, Florida where she enjoys spending time with her family, yoga, baking, and coffee.
Samantha Weil
Senior Community Manager
Los Angeles, California
Samantha Weil
Community Manager
Los Angeles, California
Samantha (pronouns: she/her/hers) joined SRE Network as the Community Manager in July 2022. Through her work in leadership development, she has dedicated her time to helping leaders and organizations become more powerful agents of change. Samantha pursued her passion for gender justice while previously working at National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) in a number of roles, including most recently as the Leadership and Events Manager. She provided individualized support to leaders and a network of sixty nonprofit organizations. She created leadership development and peer-learning programs to enhance organizations’ success and impact, as well as educated and mobilized advocates across the country through planning virtual events and in-person conferences. Previously, Samantha engaged and mobilized communities through strategic communications and event planning while working for the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, and the City of Olivette, MO. Born and raised in Saint Louis, she earned her BA in Documentary Studies and Production with minors in Women’s and Gender Studies and Jewish Studies from Ithaca College. Samantha currently resides in LA, and in her free time she can be found seeing theater, hosting game nights, baking, reading, and traveling.
Dr. Guila Benchimol
Senior Advisor, Research & Learning
Toronto, Canada
Guila Benchimol
Senior Advisor, Research & Learning
Toronto, Canada
Dr. Guila Benchimol (she/her/hers) is the Senior Advisor on Research and Learning with the SRE Network and was one of the key advisors who guided its launch in early 2018. As a researcher and public educator on sexual violence, she has crafted standards and policies for Jewish workplaces, institutions, and communal spaces and has been invited to address Jewish professionals and clergy across Canada and the US, as well as other faith communities. Guila is also trained in restorative and transformative justice facilitation.
Guila holds a PhD in Sociological Criminology and an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Her doctoral dissertation examined how victims of sexual violence become advocates and activists against sexual violence, and explored the processes that survivors experience, including victimization and disclosures, which lead them to advocate. Her MA thesis examined the 2011 murder of Leiby Kletzky (z”l) in Brooklyn, NY and its impact on the orthodox Jewish community as they discussed addressing communal concerns that arose from the crime and its aftermath.
Guila serves as a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence, where she works on projects related to homicide and domestic violence deaths, and sits on the board of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Her first career as a Jewish educator informed her understanding of the need to address victimization of all kinds in Jewish communities. She was the Director of Judaic Studies at Tiferes Bais Yaakov where she also taught grades 9 through 12. She was also the Managing Director for the National Conference of Synagogue Youth in Canada, where she founded and directed an international camp for high school girls. Guila lives in Toronto and was raised in the Spanish Moroccan Jewish community there which was built by the families who fled Tangiers.
Nancy Kaufman
Senior Advisor
New York, NY
Nancy Kaufman
Senior Advisor
New York, NY
Nancy K. Kaufman (she/her) is a Senior Advisor with SRE Network, with a focus on engaging and empowering senior-level and mid-level Jewish women professionals. She previously served on the founding Advisory Board of SRE Network. Nancy has had a distinguished career as a public servant, advocate, and non-profit leader, and runs a strategic consulting and coaching practice serving nonprofit organizational leaders.
Nancy previously served for eight years as the CEO of National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), and prior to that served as the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Boston for twenty years, where she led the social justice, Israel advocacy, and governmental affairs agendas for Boston’s Jewish Federation and its agencies. Nancy has also held a variety of positions related to health and human services delivery in state and local government and in the nonprofit sector. She worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Deputy Director of the Governor’s Social Policy Office, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Deputy Commissioner of the Welfare Department. At age 27, she was the founding executive director of a community action agency north of Boston. Kaufman was a founding board member of the Jewish Organizing Initiative (now JOIN for Justice) and the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Kaufman has a certificate in executive coaching from Presence-Based Coaching, an ICF accredited coaching program. She is an active member of the Adaptive Leadership Network and currently serves as board chair of the NY Jewish Agenda.
Kaufman is a graduate of Brandeis University, received an MSW in community organization and social planning from Boston College School of Social Work, and a mid-career MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Among other honors, she is a recipient of an honorary doctorate in public service from Northeastern University. She received the Alumni Achievement Award (1987) and the Bernard Reisman Award for professional excellence (2011) from Brandeis University and the Albert C. Chernin award from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (2019). She was recognized four times as a “Forward 50” outstanding Jewish leader. In January 2022, she was appointed by President Biden to the Commission on the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad.
Dr. Deitra Reiser
Senior Advisor, Culture & Belonging
Washington, DC
Dr. Deitra Reiser
Senior Advisor for Culture & Belonging
Washington, DC
Dr. Deitra Reiser, (she/her) is the founder of Transform for Equity, LLC, an antiracist repair group that supports organizations and leaders in building the capacity for diversity, racial equity, and belonging. Dr. Reiser partners with organizations across the country using the framework of intersectionality to dismantle systems of oppression. She is passionate about fostering racial equity and justice within organizations with a particular interest in addressing anti-Black racism and anti-Jewish hate. Deitra partners with nonprofits, synagogues, government agencies, and corporations to further racial equity and justice within the organization. She believes that organizations will transform into equitable spaces by first focusing on individual internal change which then drives intentional systemic change. Deitra fosters greater antiracist understanding among individuals and within institutions and supports their continued growth through thoughts and actions. Her focus is on driving the internal work necessary in order to achieve transformational and lasting change. She has partnered with the Union for Reform Judaism, National Park Services, and NCJW along with other organizations across the country. Deitra has over 20 years of experience as a school psychologist and educator.
Deitra is an alumna of Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Program and holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from The University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board provides oversight and strategic guidance for the SRE Network. We are grateful to its members for their leadership:
Lisa Eisen
Advisory Board Chair
Co-President
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies
Robert Bank
President & CEO
American Jewish World Service
Aaron Dorfman
Executive Director
A More Perfect Union
Danielle Natelson
Director of Programs
Leading Edge
Gamal Palmer
Charlene Seidle
President & CEO
Leichtag Foundation
SRE Network is a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund (NVF).