Board of Directors
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Samantha Fein '17, PresidentSam graduated from UVa in 2017 with a BA in Economics and an MPP from the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. As a student, she spent three years on the Jewish Leadership Council, including as Chair during her fourth year. She is originally from Long Island, and now lives in Potomac, MD working as a foreign policy analyst. She has been involved with a number of DC area Jewish communities, including Moishe House, Gather DC, and Adas Israel. Sam and her husband Andrew are expecting their first child at the end of this year!
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Hagit Lewis, Vice PresidentHagit Lewis was born and raised in Israel and now lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. She is the proud mother of a rising senior at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and a daughter who will be entering UVA as a freshman in the fall.
Hagit holds a degree in Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Jewish Professional Studies from the Spertus Institute. For the past 16 years, she has been deeply involved in the Chicago Jewish community, serving as a leader and educator across local schools and organizations. Currently, Hagit serves as the Director of Campus Life at a Jewish day school, where she works closely with her team to design and lead programming that brings Jewish values, ruach (spirit), and meaningful Jewish and Israeli experiences to the school community. Her connection to the Brody Jewish Center began during a visit to UVA with her son Adam several years ago. Since then, she has been consistently inspired by the Hillel team’s dedication to creating a warm, supportive, and vibrant Jewish environment on campus. Hagit is committed to supporting this work in any why she can—especially during these critical times. |
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Ben Greene '15, TreasurerBen graduated from UVa in 2015 with a BS in Computer Science. While at UVa he was active in Hillel where he served as the Jewish Religious Life Committee Chair, was a general member of the Jewish Leadership Council, led Shabbat and High Holiday services, and loved devouring bagels at bagels on the lawn. He also helped re-found the Jewish fraternity AEPi on grounds in 2012 and served as the Chair of their Religious Council.
He met his now wife Sheryl during his first year of school and they were married in Charlottesville in 2018 after having a surprise engagement party at the Brody Jewish Center. He is currently a Senior Software Engineering Manager and lives in Falls Church, Virginia. |
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Gwen Goodkin, SecretaryGwen Goodkin, a native of Philadelphia, has lived in Charlottesville with her family since 2002. Her professional background is in financial and database consulting. She worked for two small consulting businesses in St. Louis before moving to Boston in 1997 and starting her own firm. Her clients represented a wide range of family businesses and non-profits.
In Charlottesville, Gwen has volunteered in various positions for a number of different organizations. She is a long time volunteer with the Emergency Food Network and also coordinated the local TAP Project for UNICEF from 2007-2011. More recently, she has worked on special projects for the ACLU of Virginia and the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. |
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Scott Rosen '10, President EmeritusScott is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce with a double major in Economics. As a student, Scott was actively involved with the Jewish, McIntire and Greek communities. He was on the Board of Directors of Brody Jewish Center while a student, and rejoined as an alum in 2013.
Scott is passionate about accelerating U.S. healthcare system transformation as an investor and advisor to innovative healthcare technology and services companies. He lives in Boston with his wife, Rebecca, and their energetic labradoodle, Kugel. |
Stuart Berman '87 (MD)
Stuart Berman was born at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore in 1959 and grew up in Norfolk. He attended the University of Pennsylvania for undergraduate school and majored in natural science. He was not active at the Hillel at Penn during his college years. He attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine, graduating in 1987. He had a very good experience at UVa and was very active at UVa Hillel.
Stuart did a one year research fellowship at Penn between his second and third years of medical school and was active at Penn Hillel that year. He did his internship at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he met his wife Ileana. He did his residency in radiation oncology at the Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy. He was on the faculty at Cornell University Medical College for two years after completing residency and has been on the full-time faculty at Harvard Medical School since 1994. He is a radiation oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, specializing in thoracic oncology. He completed an MBA at Yale in 2009.
Stuart’s dad, a retired pediatrician, is an alumnus of UVa CLAS and the School of Medicine. His mother, father, and brother Bruce (UVa BA 1985) and family live in Norfolk. His brother Doug (UVa BA 1988) and family live in Weston, Florida. His sister Paula (no UVa degrees) and family live in Rockville, MD. His son Jacob graduated from UVa with a degree in physics in 2014.
Stuart is very enthusiastic about being on the board at UVa Hillel. An important Hillel mission, in his view, is outreach to students, even those who need a little encouragement. He wants UVa to be a place where all Jewish students feel it is an environment that is supportive of their Jewish needs and aspirations. Enhancing UVA’s attractiveness to relatively observant prospective students is an important goal.
Stuart did a one year research fellowship at Penn between his second and third years of medical school and was active at Penn Hillel that year. He did his internship at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he met his wife Ileana. He did his residency in radiation oncology at the Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy. He was on the faculty at Cornell University Medical College for two years after completing residency and has been on the full-time faculty at Harvard Medical School since 1994. He is a radiation oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, specializing in thoracic oncology. He completed an MBA at Yale in 2009.
Stuart’s dad, a retired pediatrician, is an alumnus of UVa CLAS and the School of Medicine. His mother, father, and brother Bruce (UVa BA 1985) and family live in Norfolk. His brother Doug (UVa BA 1988) and family live in Weston, Florida. His sister Paula (no UVa degrees) and family live in Rockville, MD. His son Jacob graduated from UVa with a degree in physics in 2014.
Stuart is very enthusiastic about being on the board at UVa Hillel. An important Hillel mission, in his view, is outreach to students, even those who need a little encouragement. He wants UVa to be a place where all Jewish students feel it is an environment that is supportive of their Jewish needs and aspirations. Enhancing UVA’s attractiveness to relatively observant prospective students is an important goal.
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Jenny David '97 (Law)Jenny lives in Newport News, Virginia, and is a partner in David, Kamp & Frank, L.L.C., where her specialty is family law litigation. Jenny received her undergraduate degree from Mary Baldwin College in 1994 and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1997. Jenny met her husband, Josh (CLAS '94, LAW '97), during law school, and they have two sons, Reilly (CLAS ‘24) and Reece.
Jenny has been involved in the Jewish community on the Virginia Peninsula for over 24 years. She served on the Board of Rodef Sholom Temple, and has been active in the local Jewish Federation, the United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula, Inc., having served as its President, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Secretary, Campaign Chair, and Women's Division Chair. Jenny was a member of the National Young Leadership Cabinet for the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), and currently serves on JFNA’s National Women’s Philanthropy Board. Jenny and Josh have been very excited to watch the growth of Hillel at UVA since they were students at the University, and are grateful that there is such a vibrant Jewish community on Grounds. |
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David LeblangDavid Leblang is the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics and Professor of Public Policy. He is the Randolph Compton Professor of Public Affairs at the University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs where he is Director of Policy Studies. Leblang is a scholar of political economy with research interests in global migration and in the politics of financial markets. His recent publications include The Ties That Bind: Immigration and the Global Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2023), “Labor Market Policy as Immigration Control: The Case of Temporary Protected Status” (International Studies Quarterly, 2022), and “Framing Unpopular Foreign Policies” (American Journal of Political Science, 2022). In 2015,
Leblang was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award by the University of Virginia and in 2016 he received the Outstanding Mentoring Award from the Society of Women in International Political Economy of the International Studies Association. He is a devoted fan of Bruce Springsteen and the New York Mets, in that order. |
David Haas '98
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Mark Sisisky '72Mark Sisisky is the immediate Past President of JDC, The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, known around the world as the “Joint”. Mark is currently serving as Chairman of the Board of JDC which serves the needs of 55,000 to 60,000 clients daily around the world.
Mark resides in Richmond, Virginia, where he currently serves as Managing Partner of New Dominion of Virginia LC. For more than nine years, Mark served as a trustee at the Community Foundation of Greater Richmond as both Chair of the Audit and Governance committees. He served as President and Campaign Chair of the United Way of Southside Virginia, President of the Endowment Fund of the United Way of Greater Richmond and President of the American Red Cross of Southside Virginia. He served as a trustee of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation. Mark also served as President of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and the Richmond Jewish Foundation. Mark and Susan were instrumental in creating the Jewish Care Line at Jewish Family Services in Richmond which helps ameliorate Jewish poverty and economic distress in Richmond. They also created the Sisisky Summer in Israel Fund for teens at their synagogue, Temple Beth El and The Susan and Mark Sisisky Global Enrichment Fund at The Collegiate School in Richmond. Mark and Susan also created the permanently endowed Mark and Susan Sisisky JDC Global Enrichment Fund in cooperation with the Richmond Jewish Foundation. More than 37 Sisisky Fellows have travelled on JDC Entwine programs. Mark took his degree from UVA in 1972. Immediately after college, Mark spent a year in Israel on a kibbutz where he met his wife, Susan. Mark and Susan have two children, Joy and Zach, and four grandchildren. |
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Zak Krooks '17Zak graduated UVA in 2017 with a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Foreign Affairs, spending three years on the Jewish Leadership Council. Originally from Westchester, New York, Zak lived in Israel for a year after graduating UVa prior to attending NYU School of Law. He currently works as a corporate real estate attorney in New York City.
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Jonah Werbel '25Jonah (SEAS '25, B.S. Computer Science) is from Falls Church, VA and works nearby in Northern Virginia as a cloud developer. During his time at UVA, he was involved in Club Swim, Hillel, Chabad, and the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He also worked as a bus driver and supervisor for the University Transit Service. Through Hillel, Jonah participated in the Hillel Jewish Leadership Institute (HJLI) during his first year, was the HJLI Facilitator intern during his second year, served as Head First Year Experience intern in his third year, and was Vice Chair of the Jewish Leadership Advisory Board during his fourth year. Jonah was privileged to work as a counselor at Camp Ramah in New England for five summers. He enjoys spending time outdoors, hanging out with friends, and cheering on the Hoos and all DC sports teams.
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Ned Kronenberg '26, JLAB ChairAviva is a fourth year from Chevy Chase, MD. Aviva is an Economics major with a concentration in Public Policy and a Psychology minor. Aviva is incredibly excited to be serving as Chair of the Jewish Leadership Advisory Board (JLAB) this year.
Aviva shared that, "Hillel has truly given me some of my best friends and favorite memories in college. Having a built-in community to lean on is invaluable during this time in life. I want to help nurture this community that I love so much so that others can have what Hillel has given me. WaJewWa!" |
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Michael Liebermann '26, Student RepresentativeMichael is a third-year student from Westfield, NJ. He is a Jewish Studies Undergraduate Fellow and the Jewish Identity Chair of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. Before that, he participated in the Hillel Jewish Leadership Institute and served as a Jewish Education Intern at Hillel. He is also a regular at Hillel’s Shabbat services, where he somehow manages to smile even when someone hijacks the Adon Olam tune.
Michael’s father’s family immigrated to Charlottesville from Israel in the 1980s, spending five years at the University. Michael’s grandfather studied engineering and taught Hebrew at the University — and attended Hillel High Holiday services at Newcomb Hall. Michael is an English major, in the Area Program for Literary Prose Writing. He plays sports as the president of UVA Men’s Club Soccer and writes about far better ones as the sports editor of The Cavalier Daily. He is excited (although perhaps not as much as his mother) to serve the Board! |