Women's Philanthropy Board Gears Up for 5774

Leigh Johnson, Women’s Philanthropy Board Chair

Federation's Women’s Philanthropy Board members gathered on Tuesday, September 10th, for their annual Board Retreat which was a wonderful kick-off for the new year. Twenty five board members enjoyed the day at the home of Jessica Effress in La Jolla Shores, which was led by Women’s Philanthropy Board Chair, Leigh Johnson and Leadership Development Chair, Jessica Effress. This dynamic duo led the Board through a series of discussions to prepare the Board for the coming year. The discussions included a presentation from Women’s Campaign Chair, Lisa Kornfeld along with Leigh Johnson, who participated on a special mission this past July to Minsk, Belarus and Israel along with 100 volunteer leaders and professionals from across North America.  Lisa and Leigh shared their experiences meeting with grateful recipients from children to young adults to senior citizens, holocaust survivors along with Righteous Among the Nations, and visiting home-bound elderly. They also relayed how meaningful it was to witness first-hand the life changing programs and the impactful work funded by Federations in partnership with our overseas partners, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Center (JDC) , the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), and World ORT. 

Samantha Cohen and Karen Kogut

Lori Polin, Laura Vainer and Karen Jinich

The Retreat also featured guest speaker, Robb Lippitt, co-chair of the Jewish Federations of North America‘s National Young Leadership. Robb, a volunteer leader from Detroit, gave a dynamic presentation on how to reach out in the community and encourage more people to engage in the work of Federation. His exciting new approach is to engage people where they’re at, on topics that interest them, providing them a way to interact with Federation through innovative programming. “There is a whole generations out there, that we need to engage, and if we diligently plan exciting new programs with new approaches, we can and will connect with many new community members”, commented one Board member after Robb’s presentation. 

The women discussed their new approaches to the campaign for 2014, new programming ideas and announced that OPTIONS 2014 will be held on Sunday, January 12, 2014 with co-chairs, Laura Vainer, Karen Kogut along with Ingrid Shulman, representing the Young Adult Division. Women’s Philanthropy has many new and exciting programs to look forward in the new year and are excited to welcome many new women in the community to their events and programs! For more information on the Womens’ Philanthropy Board, please contact Debbie Kempinski at (858) 737-7133.

Juli Bear, Guest Speaker Robb Lippitt, Jessica Effress	Jessica Effress, Leadership Development Chair
Gina Guertin, Juli Bear and Britney Ewing	Lisa Kornfeld, Women’s Campaign Chair
Meg Mandel, Silvana Christy and Leigh Johnson