Board of Directors

Community Member
Treasurer, Executive Committee

Wendy Allyn started her public service in education when she served as the student representative to the California State Board of Education during her senior year in high school. She then attended Harvard University where she graduated with honors in Social Studies after writing a thesis on the subject of the Politicization of Bilingual Education in California. After several years working in a successful Boston start-up, she returned to California with her husband and later attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where she received an MBA. Wendy spent 15 years at Hewlett Packard in Finance, covering a multitude of management roles and businesses. 

Since then, Wendy has been extremely active at Hausner, serving in numerous roles including Parent Kesher Co-Chair, Board Treasurer, Finance Committee Chair, and Board President.  She participated in multiple board committees including Development, L’Dor Vador, HOS Support and Evaluation, HOS Search, and Governance.  She is currently Treasurer on Congregation Kol Emeth’s Board and served the past two years as VP of the Los Altos High School PTSA.  Both of her daughters thrived at Hausner where they attended starting in Kindergarten through 8th Grade. When not volunteering, Wendy relishes time watching her daughters’ play sports, walking her two Bernese Mountain Dogs, and experimenting with new recipes.

Community Member

Jill has spent her career working with and bridging the worlds of the public, private and independent sectors, with dedicated focus on nonprofits and philanthropy.  She has worked as a researcher, analyst, advocate, coach, consultant, social entrepreneur and business owner.  Her passion and skills are in helping organizations and their leaders build a healthy, joyful, creative, values-based culture, skilled at using information and experience to achieve meaningful results.   

With devotion to civic engagement and democratic practice, Jill launched and led two nonprofit philanthropic affinity groups– the Grantmaker Forum on Community and National Service and PACE – Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement.  She was a founding partner of Informing Change, a California-based evaluation and consulting firm that provides information-based consulting support to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.   Since 2007, Jill has been an independent consultant, providing coaching, support, technical assistance and facilitation to organizations and their leaders.  Current and recent clients include: The Peninsula Jewish Community Center, Sonoma Community Foundation, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Citizen University, Voice of the People, The Aspen Institute, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, and The Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

Jill has authored and co-authored numerous papers on issues facing the field of nonprofits and philanthropy. With funding from the Ford Foundation, her most recent publication, New Leader, Endless Possibility… tells the story of legacy and leadership. Jill spent a year as a “consultant in residence” deep diving with the Peninsula Jewish Community Center, a legacy organization and its new CEO to reinvigorate purpose and encourage creative and courageous practice in the face of transition and uncertainty.  Other publications include, 21st Century Civic Infrastructure: Under Construction and, The Nature of Leadership: Lessons from an Exemplary Statesman, a book about Senator “Scoop” Jackson’s leadership style and accomplishments.

Jill serves on the board of trustees of the Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, CA and as a pro bono advisor to the Managing Director and the Governance Committee of Palo Alto Players – a local community theater.  She has been a resource for and mentor to the “Scoop” Jackson Leadership Fellows, a program she helped design.  While not pursuing her passions for democracy and nonprofit excellence, Jill and her wife, Fay Twersky, share their lives and adventures with their two amazing children, David-Nathan – a graduate of Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School and now a rising Freshman at the University of Chicago, with a passion for science and Jaz – a recent Honors graduate of UC San Diego with a degree in linguistics who just completed a year as a Repair the World Service Fellow working on issues of educational equity.  Jaz is starting a new job in the fall of 2019 as an educator at Temple Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Parent Member
Vice President, Executive Committee

Before joining Hausner’s Board of Directors in 2017, Ronit served on the L’Dor VaDor Campus Expansion Committee, as well as the Risk Management Committee. Since 2005, Ronit has been involved in real estate management and development. She is a principal and the General Counsel of Alcheck Properties, a real estate investment and development company with residential, commercial and industrial properties throughout California. Before that, she was in-house legal counsel at Intel and prior to that a litigation associate at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP. Ronit earned her law degree from UCLA School of Law and her Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She has been involved with numerous Jewish organizations throughout the Bay Area and was an early member and board member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She also serves as a Commissioner on the Los Altos Planning & Transportation Commission.

A daughter of Israelis, Ronit was born and raised in Los Altos where she and her husband, Zack Bodner, currently live with their three children, Talia, a Hausner graduate, and current Hausner students, Elie and Orly. She enjoys traveling, playing tennis and trying new restaurants.

Community Member

Kim is an attorney at Jorgenson, Siegel, McClure & Flegel, LLP, specializing in estate planning and administration. She began her legal career at Heller Ehrman LLP, where she regularly counseled organizations, including Hausner, regarding labor and employment matters. Kim earned her law degree from New York University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania.  She served on the Board of Directors of Congregation Kol Emeth and was a founding member and Managing Director of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Kim lives in Los Altos with her two children.

Community Member

Yoram Cedar has more than 35 years experience in managing organizations that develop advanced technologies and products that create new markets while disrupting mature markets.  While at SanDisk Corporation, he held the position of Executive VP and CTO responsible for innovating and developing Flash memory technologies and products.  His career has involved leading teams in the US, Israel, Japan, India, China and the UK that are innovative, adaptive, collaborative and execution-oriented, as well as skilled at thinking outside of the box, taking calculated risks and being dedicated to the mission. 

The son of Holocaust survivors, Yoram was born in Haifa.  He served as a combat officer in the IDF and participated in the Yom Kippur and Lebanon wars.  Yoram holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion in Haifa.  He also holds an Executive MBA from Stanford and was granted over 30 patents.  Yoram and his wife, Zahava, live in Los Altos and are members of Congregation Bet Ha’am.  They support medical and educational institutions and are members of the American Technion Society (ATS) and American Friends of Rambam (AFORAM).  Yoram also joined the Z3 efforts at the OFJCC and is very excited about its potential. Yoram and Zahava have three sons, Omer, Eran and Oded, as well as five grandchildren, Eli, Sam, Abby, Naama and Itai.  Eli and Sam are students at Hausner. 

Parent Member

Anessa Farber is currently the Fiscal and Administrative Officer for San Mateo County Health Department's Public Health, Policy and Planning and Emergency Medical Services Divisions. She has worked in the County of San Mateo for fifteen years in multiple roles, including analyzing the impact of the Affordable Care Act on Mental Health Services, helping the County Manager start the Community Corrections Partnership to implement Public Safety Realignment and implementing multiple child welfare program and process improvements for Juvenile Probation. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Columbia University with a BA in Latin American Studies and Political Science and returned four years later to obtain a Masters of Social Work, specializing in Program Evaluation and Program Planning. Anessa and her husband George are the proud parents of one Hausner graduate and two current students - Raya (7th), and Nathan (2)--and long standing members of the community, having both graduated from Gunn High School. All of the kids' grandparents and great-grandparents live within a five mile radius! When not working, parenting or spending time with kids and friends on Hausner campus, Anessa loves to go to theater and concerts, travel, and listen to audiobooks.

Parent Member
Immediate Past President, Executive Committee

Lisa has been an active volunteer during her ten years as a Hausner parent, helping to support the school in small and large ways. For two years, she co-chaired Parent Kesher’s Staff Appreciation efforts and served as a room parent for more years than she can recall. Since joining the Board in 2014, she chaired the Governance Committee and served as Vice President, First Vice President and President. Lisa spent twenty years working in the nonprofit and foundation worlds, focusing on programs that strive to improve the lives of at-risk youth. Most recently, she was the Program Manager for the Hans and Elizabeth Wolf Foundation and the Morgan Family Foundation, where she helped design and implement giving strategies and evaluate program success. Prior to that, she was the Associate Director of Adolescent Counseling Services, where she oversaw fundraising, marketing, evaluation and strategic planning.  

Lisa grew up in New York City and came west to attend Stanford, graduating with a BA in English. Lisa lives in Palo Alto with her husband, Jim Harris, and their daughters, Addie, a Hausner graduate, and Franny, a seventh grader. 

Parent Member

Havi Wolfson Hall grew up in Los Angeles, California. Raised by two Jewish educators, she spent her afternoons as a teen involved in USY and summers at Camp Ramah in Ojai, California and is a graduate of Heschel Day School.  She received a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan and completed a Double Master’s Degree from USC School of Social Work and Hebrew Union College in Jewish Communal Services. Havi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker whose training has been in the area of early childhood development, adolescence and young adulthood, as well as parenting.  Over her 20 years of experience, Havi has treated individuals, couples, families, and groups at JFS in Los Angeles.  She supervised graduate level interns as a Clinical Supervisor for the Maple Counseling Center in Beverly Hills. Currently, Havi works at JFCS Parents Place in Palo Alto as their Child and Adolescent Therapist and Parent Educator specializing in Technology. 

Havi is the Creator of Health-E-Connections; a resource that helps her clients create and maintain healthy relationships online while finding a balanced use of technology. Havi is particularly concerned with important issues facing our tech savvy children today and has provided lectures, workshops, advised and collaborated with various communities to promote early intervention, strategies, policies and awareness around coming of age struggles in a technological world. Havi and her Husband Dave, who works for Google, were relocated from Los Angeles to Silicon Valley in 2010. They found their community at the OFJCC where Havi was an active volunteer at the OFJCC Preschool, drinker of almond milk lattes at the Nourish Café, and Zumba fanatic.  You will typically find the Halls busy working, volunteering, traveling to Maui, and raising their two precocious children, Ellie and Gabe, who are also learning how to balance their screen time.

Parent Member

From the moment her daughters entered school, Valerie became involved in the Hausner volunteer community, serving on both the Development Committee and the Purim Carnival Committee - bringing with her more than twenty years of nonprofit experience and an inherent love for Jewish community. Valerie’s passion stems from her upbringing in Upstate NY, where she and her family were entrenched as volunteers and leaders in local Jewish communal institutions, and from her deep sense of pride for her family’s history and dedication to tradition. As a teenager and young adult, Valerie lived in Israel where she fell in love with the country and the people, further solidifying her commitment to Jewish community.

Valerie built her professional life from this passion and most recently founded her own firm -redVERED Nonprofit Strategies and Solutions – providing Jewish nonprofits expertise in strategic planning, resource development, programing and events, and organizational capacity building. Among other projects, she directed a $23 million capital campaign for Chabad NP | Chai Preschool and partnered with the Oshman Family JCC to produce the content and logistics for the Zionism 3.0 (Z3) Conference. Previously, Valerie was the West Coast Vice President of the Shalom Hartman Institute and led the Pacific Northwest Region for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – as its Regional Deputy Director and Interim Regional Director. Valerie has also managed to merge her commitment to Jewish values with another passion of hers, travel and adventure, by receiving fellowships from American Jewish World Service (AJWS) with which she spent a summer in rural Zimbabwe and a year in Mumbai, India serving local NGOs. She received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California; graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies; and studied at Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa.

Valerie and her husband Zack are the proud parents of their four spunky and precocious daughters: Siona (First Grade), Perri (Kindergarten), Edyn (Kindergarten) and Noa (future Hausner student).

Community Member

From the moment her daughters entered school, Valerie became involved in the Hausner volunteer community, serving on both the Development Committee and the Purim Carnival Committee - bringing with her more than twenty years of nonprofit experience and an inherent love for Jewish community. Valerie’s passion stems from her upbringing in Upstate NY, where she and her family were entrenched as volunteers and leaders in local Jewish communal institutions, and from her deep sense of pride for her family’s history and dedication to tradition. As a teenager and young adult, Valerie lived in Israel where she fell in love with the country and the people, further solidifying her commitment to Jewish community.

Valerie built her professional life from this passion and most recently founded her own firm -redVERED Nonprofit Strategies and Solutions – providing Jewish nonprofits expertise in strategic planning, resource development, programing and events, and organizational capacity building. Among other projects, she directed a $23 million capital campaign for Chabad NP | Chai Preschool and partnered with the Oshman Family JCC to produce the content and logistics for the Zionism 3.0 (Z3) Conference. Previously, Valerie was the West Coast Vice President of the Shalom Hartman Institute and led the Pacific Northwest Region for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – as its Regional Deputy Director and Interim Regional Director. Valerie has also managed to merge her commitment to Jewish values with another passion of hers, travel and adventure, by receiving fellowships from American Jewish World Service (AJWS) with which she spent a summer in rural Zimbabwe and a year in Mumbai, India serving local NGOs. She received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California; graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies; and studied at Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa.

Valerie and her husband Zack are the proud parents of their four spunky and precocious daughters: Siona (First Grade), Perri (Kindergarten), Edyn (Kindergarten) and Noa (future Hausner student).

Community Member

Stacey’s life-long commitment to fostering equitable and socially just learning environments crosses decades and continents.  Most recently, she launched and shepherded the growth of Castilleja School’s Center for Awareness, Compassion, and Engagement, along with serving as the school’s first Dean of Equity Education and Social Impact in Palo Alto, CA. 

Stacey’s years as a classroom teacher, school administrator, non-profit founder/leader, and mother inform her belief that experiential learning optimizes the development of social and emotional skills in students and supports their development in becoming social change agents. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with degrees in English and sociology, and a graduate degree in Social and Cultural Studies in Education. She began her independent school career in the K-8 environment, working as a teacher and administrator. In 2008 Stacey co-founded eduWeavers, a non-profit dedicated to partnering schools in the United States and South Africa around the concept of reciprocal learning. In 2010 she was awarded the title “Teacher of the Future” by the National Association of Independent Schools for her focus on the use of technology and emphasis on global education in the classroom to create an innovative platform for teaching 21st century skills. She currently serves as an advisory board member to the America India Foundation and Roshni Academy and has served on the Board of Directors of the Mariposa Foundation.  Each of these organizations shares a commitment to creating more equitable access to educational opportunities in their respective communities.  

She is the mother of two daughters and raised them as she was raised: lead with curiosity, strive for empathy, decide with compassion, avoid being a bystander, and hold true to your Jewish identity in ways that ring true to you and maintain the culture and traditions that bring a sense of stability, joy, and strength to your life and those of others around you.

Parent Member

Isaac Kontorovsky is a Vice President at BKF Engineers, a leading civil engineering, land surveying, and land planning firm delivering “inspired infrastructure” projects since 1915 throughout California. As a member of the executive leadership group at BKF, Isaac has been involved in some of the most iconic and challenging private and public developments in the region including academic, hospitality, mixed-use residential, and commercial projects. Recently, he was directly involved in the firm’s strategic plan, leading one of the committees generating initiatives for growth, diversity, and expansion. As a strong advocate of sustainable and environmentally responsible design, you will often find Isaac at nearby university campuses such as UC Berkeley and Stanford as a speaker on the topic of Innovation and Sustainability. You might also find him at Hausner speaking and engaging the much younger generation about creative building practices.

Upon relocating from Venezuela where he obtained is B.S. in Civil Engineering, and since putting down roots in Silicon Valley, Isaac has been an active member of the community. Either volunteering time, serving in nonprofit boards, or head coaching his daughter’s soccer or softball teams, he stays busy yet always finding balance with work and family life in Palo Alto, where he lives with his wife Miliarist and their two daughters, Miri and Meirav, current students at Hausner. Isaac is currently serving on Hausner’s Risk Management Committee -year 2020 has made sure to keep things quite active. He is also a co-host of Hausner’s Annual Camping Trip.

Community Member

Nittai currently works on the Corporate Development team at Apple, following a couple years of working as an investment banking analyst at GCA Advisors. Prior to beginning his career, Nittai received a Masters in Accounting from the University of Michigan (Ross) and a BS from USC. As a Junior in High School, Nittai founded One Love Advocates, a non-profit organization aimed towards improving the quality of education in Haiti following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. As part of his efforts, he raised over $20,000 and led two trips to Haiti, putting time and resources towards developing a mobile computer program for tent schools in the Port-au-Prince area. Nittai is a Hausner graduate, having attended the school K-8. His three younger siblings, Talia, Yahli and Leo, all attended Hausner as well.

Parent Member

Susan Packer has spent her career in both the corporate and non-profit sector, with roots in education (former elementary/middle school teacher) and extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry as a marketing professional.  Susan is the former North Pacific Director for the American Technion Society, supporting the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, where she was responsible for fundraising, alumni relations and major gifts.  Susan earned a degree in Biology from Mills College and has a passion for all things science and volunteers in canine search and rescue. Susan and her husband Shlomi Krepner, are parents to three children, including a Hausner graduate and a current third grader.

Community Member

Amber Rosen is a Superior Court Judge for the County of Santa Clara.  She is currently sitting in Dependency Court where she hears cases regarding abused and neglected children.  Prior to taking the bench, she was a federal prosecutor for more than 20 years, specializing in white collar fraud. Originally from Michigan, she moved permanently to California in 1995. Amber attended Harvard University for college and went to law school at UC Berkeley. She lives in Los Altos with her husband and two daughters. She previously served on the Hausner Board while her children were in preschool. Both daughters are Hausner graduates and are now in college.

Parent Member

Ron Sandel is a business executive and an active member of the Bay Area Jewish community.  He is currently VP of Growth and Operations at Chegg, an education technology company focused on improving learning outcomes for High School and College students. Previously, he spent five years at Yahoo, where he led strategic operations in the Office of the CEO.  Ron earned a BA in Economics from Brandeis University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is an involved father of four, three of whom currently attend Hausner.

Community Member
Co-President, Executive Committee

Yaron Simler is a seasoned executive with global, multidisciplinary management experience for public and private high-tech companies. Yaron was CEO in his last three positions at telecommunications, mobile, networking, and video infrastructure technology companies. Most recently he began working at Stanford University as a senior client executive for Stanford Health Care. A native Israeli, who grew up secular, Yaron is married to Rabbi Serena Eisenberg, the Executive Director of Hillel at Stanford. Through the relation with Serena, Yaron was introduced to the richness of pluralistic, progressive and egalitarian Judaism.

Yaron’s five boys attended Jewish Community Day Schools, in Berkeley California, in Providence Rhode Island, and the younger two at Hausner (classes of 2013 and 2017).  His family has affiliations with several synagogues, including Kol Emeth, Beth Am, Etz Chaim, and Congregation Hod V’Hadar in Kfar Saba, Israel. Yaron participated in the OFJCC Gvanim program, and is an active alumnus. Yaron holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley, as well as B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University.

Parent Member
Executive Committee

Eric Stein is a high-tech entrepreneur who has developed an extensive career in the internet industry, specializing in building new businesses. Eric is the Executive Vice President and General Manager at Branch Metrics, a deep linking and business analytics platform in Silicon Valley. Previously, he served as the Executive Vice President of Online Solutions for Epsilon. While at Google, Eric served as Director of Local Markets and Director of Double Click. His professional background includes past experience as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Bessemer Ventures of New York. He co-founded Majestic Research, a data-driven investment research fund that was sold to ITG in 2008. He received his BA in European History and Italian from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA in General Management from Harvard Business School.

President of AFHU’s Pacific Northwest Region since 2007, Eric has actively helped to develop public awareness of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and to expand its network of American Friends, particularly among younger generations. Eric also supports LifeMoves, the FIDF, the JCC and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco Marin Peninsula and Sonoma Counties. Eric and his wife, Rebecca, live in Palo Alto and have three children attending Hausner – Sarah, Julianna, and Daniel. Eric coached all three of his children’s soccer teams and enjoys biking, playing tennis and deep-sea fishing when he can find the time.

Parent Member
Co-President, Executive Committee

Karen Strobel has spent her career researching settings that promote and support adolescents' intellectual, social and emotional development. She has worked with schools, after school programs and university researchers to capture the qualities of young leaders, engaged learners and collaborative problem solvers. Currently, Karen is the Director of Institutional Research at Castilleja School in Palo Alto. Prior to her time at Castilleja, Karen was a senior researcher at the John W. Gardner Center at Stanford where she led research projects designed in partnership with teachers and community leaders. 

Karen received her BA from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Child and Adolescent Development from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. Karen lives in Palo Alto with her husband Jon Bernstein, and their sons, Gabriel, a Hausner seventh grader, and Daniel, a Hausner graduate.

Parent Member
Secretary-Executive Committee

Emily Waldorf holds a BA in Art History and French from Scripps College and an MA in French from Middlebury College.  She worked at Sotheby's in Paris, Bonhams in San Francisco, and later as an art consultant in Los Angeles specializing in educational art tours to private collections, galleries, and artist studios as well as writing about the local art scene.  While her background is in the art market, Emily’s most recent focus has been as a community volunteer. In addition to her work on the Hausner board, where she chairs the Development Committee, Emily also serves as Co-President of the Board of Directors of the Ambassadors for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.  Emily has also served as a trustee of Scripps College.  Emily and her husband Greg Waldorf have three children who are current Hausner students. She is an avid equestrian and Bernese Mountain dog enthusiast.    

Community Member

Matthew Weeks is Co-Founder and CEO of HealthyOps, a Healthcare IT Informatics company serving hospitals, clinic systems and other healthcare service delivery organizations. He also serves as chairman of a money transfer company and advisor to several other technology companies. Matthew began his career in San Francisco and has spent over 30 years in financial services, including commercial and retail banking, consumer behavior and analytics, brokerage and investment banking and software services targeting small and micro-businesses, including Moodys, BofA, Wells, and Intuit. Later he co-founded or led companies in the interactive, mobile and social media sectors and in the emerging online and mobile payments marketplace. Matthew is active in the startup and venture community as a mentor, start-up guy, connector and consigliere.

A native of Palo Alto, Matthew has been a member of Temple Beth Am almost since its inception, receiving his Bar-Mitzvah with Rabbi Sydney Akselrad. He attended Gunn High School before earning a degree in English Literature at Amherst College and subsequently an MBA in Finance and The Entrepreneur Program Certificate at USC’s Marshall School of Business, where he has served on the National Board for over 20 years, has served as President of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, and is a President’s Ambassador. Matthew lives in Redwood City with his wonderful wife Sharon Brown and their daughter Rebecca, a Hausner graduate.