18X18 Research Fellowship

Clare Goldwater is a Jewish educator and leadership coach with expertise in professional and organizational development and experiential education. As Vice President of Education, Clare develops advances and disseminates M²’s approach and ideas about experiential Jewish education as widely as possible, through consulting projects to Jewish organizations, publications, curricula materials and more. Clare has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University, an MA in Jewish Education from Hebrew University and a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. She also holds passports from those 3 countries and lives in Jerusalem with her family. Clare can be reached at clare@ieje.org.

Miriam is Vice Provost for Educational Strategy National Director, School of Education Associate Professor Rhea Hirsch School of Education/Jack H. Skirball Campus. She is passionate about empowering Jewish educational leaders and teachers to engage in their work intentionally, skillfully and creatively. Her current research and writing focus on designing Jewish education as a tool for building a creative society. She founded and directs “Beit HaYotzer: the Creativity Braintrust .”

Yolanda is a member of the JewVNation cohort, a fellowship sponsored by the URJ; she is a vice-chair of the Religious Action Center’s (RAC) Commission on Social Action; she was a 2019 Schusterman Fellow; and before her role at the URJ, she was the Executive Director of Operation Understanding DC, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting understanding, cooperation, and respect while fighting to eradicate racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.

Alex is Principal & Managing Director of Rosov Consulting Israel. His research areas include the life course of Jewish families, teachers’ lives and work, and Israel education. Alex was founding Head of Jewish Studies at the King Solomon High School, the Koschitzky Family Chair in Jewish Teacher Education at York University, Toronto, and Senior Researcher at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education. He is past chair of the Network for Research in Jewish Education.

Ben is Associate Research Professor at George Washington University. He has spent most of his career preparing social studies teachers and Jewish educators for school and non-school settings, and consulting with various Jewish education agencies on curriculum and teaching. His research includes the history and theory of social education, Jewish education, and teacher education on the American scene.

Bryan Oren is a seasoned teacher, curriculum developer, and education consultant. Previously, Bryan worked at Facing History and Ourselves, where he led the Jewish Education Program’s work on race and equity in Jewish settings. As a Dorot Fellow in 2017, Bryan studied Mizrahi piyyutim and representation in Israeli history curricula. For the first six years of his career, Bryan was a music teacher in low-income communities of color. Currently, Bryan is a PhD student in Education at the University of Haifa. In his free time, Bryan plays jazz saxophone and pickup basketball. Bryan lives in Jerusalem with his wife and daughter.