JALSA Staff
Cindy Rowe, President & CEO
Cindy Rowe is the President & CEO of JALSA. Her extensive work in the nonprofit sector over the past two decades has strengthened many organizations and has enabled them to address critical needs such as affordable housing, health care, access to legal aid, immigration assistance, and many other essential services. She previously served as JALSA’s Deputy Director for Development and Outreach and has led efforts to engage members and the general public in many recent JALSA campaigns, including guaranteeing paid family and medical leave and $15 an hour for all Massachusetts workers and serving on the Strategy Committee guiding the passage of the state’s most recent gun violence prevention law. Cindy has also led all of JALSA’s development initiatives, which provide the necessary financial support for our work, through the JALSA Justice Society, Tzedek Annual Fund, Membership Drive, Annual Meeting, and other donation programs.
Cindy chaired the Social Justice Committee at Temple Israel/Boston, which pioneered the concept of using community organizing in a synagogue setting over 10 years ago, leading to the adoption of this technique in hundreds of synagogues across the country. She also has many years of advocacy experience, having worked in the Massachusetts State House for both the Administration and Legislature. She also founded the New England Housing Network, bringing together organizations from a six state region to advocate for federal affordable housing programs.
Cindy is a board member of the Lawyers Clearinghouse, which provides pro bono legal services to nonprofit corporations throughout the state. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard College, concentrating in Government and English, and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.
cindy(at)jalsa.dot.org
Tamar Lewis
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Tamar Lewis is the Deputy Director at JALSA. For the past 25 years she’s worked in a wide variety of non-profit organizations, including social services, advocacy, legal services, international aid, academic institutions, and public broadcasting. She has a strong background in fundraising, strategic planning, and non-profit operations. For many years her focus has been on helping small non-profits build and expand their programs and systems.
Tamar has a JD from Northeastern University School of Law, and a BS from the University of Minnesota.
tamar(at)jalsa.dot.org
David Albright
DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND ADVOCACY
David Albright is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at JALSA. David worked in Allentown, Pennsylvania organizing both the Jewish and Latino communities during the 2016 election cycle. He has served as a Campaign Manager and Consultant for several municipal and state level candidates in Massachusetts. David is a member of the Democratic State Committee and serves on the board of Bay State Stonewall Democrats. He has a BA from Skidmore College in Biology and a JD from the University of Maine School of Law. In his spare time he enjoys knitting and farmers markets.
david(at)jalsa.dot.org
Julia Schlozman
SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY
Julia Schlozman is the Senior Staff Attorney at JALSA. A former legal services lawyer, Julia has represented clients in child care and benefits cases before state agencies, represented tenants in housing court, and litigated cases in state and federal court. At JALSA, Julia is deeply involved in JALSA’s legislative work, ranging from immigration to environmental justice. She also oversees JALSA’s amicus briefs, and recently drafted an amicus brief to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of JALSA and six other faith-aligned organizations in DeWeese-Boyd v. Gordon College, a case involving major issues of constitutional and anti-discrimination law. Julia earned an A.B. in medieval art history from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
julia(at)jalsa.dot.org
Bryan Scrafford
ORGANIZING DIRECTOR
Bryan Scrafford is the Organizing Director at JALSA. Bryan comes to JALSA with over a decade of experience leading organizing efforts for non-profit advocacy organizations. A firm believer in how faith communities are called to seek justice for all, his organizing work has prioritized bringing people of faith into coalitions that have successfully lobbied for legislation at the state and local level. One example of this can be seen through his work to further the conversation about the LGBTQ community being welcomed by religious communities by bringing faith leaders into a coalition that worked on adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the non-discrimination policy for a local school system in Northern Virginia.
bryan(at)jalsa.dot.org
Mathew Helman
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Mathew Helman is the Communications Director at JALSA. For more than 20 years, Mathew has worked in Massachusetts state government and politics, for a number of state legislators, political campaigns, and non-profit organizations, focusing primarily on media relations, messaging strategy, content development, and community engagement.
Mathew has a BA from Brandeis University and a Master of Public Administration degree from The George Washington University, and is a product of Framingham public schools.
mathew(at)jalsa.dot.org
Kara Brickman
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS
Kara Brickman began her career in Development and Events Planning for the world’s first PhD program in Holocaust History, founded at her alma mater, Clark University. During her career, she has worked as a fundraiser for several non-sectarian Jewish educational and philanthropic organizations, in addition to extended forays as a professional organizer and digital communications consultant in the tech start-up, higher education, and construction industries.
Kara’s work at JALSA is grounded in a deep sense of gratitude to donors who share her desire to pursue meaningful actions to create the world of inclusion she wants for her daughter Aideen’s future.
kara(at)jalsa.dot.org
Ellen VanDyke Bell
JEWS OF COLOR, JEWS OF THE AMERICAS, AND JEWS OF THE DIASPORA COORDINATOR
Ellen VanDyke Bell is JALSA’s Jews of Color, Jews of the Americas, and Jews of the Diaspora Coordinator. Ellen is an African American Reform Jew, an attorney, and a former Magistrate for the State of Connecticut, Judicial Branch. She is currently a second-year student in the Masters of Religious Study Program at Yale Divinity School, focusing on ethics. She is also in rabbinical school. Ellen is committed to evaluating and addressing socio-economic, environmental, immigration, racial justice, and health care issues through Jewish perspectives, especially from the viewpoints of Jews of Color.
ellen(at)jalsa.dot.org
Sophie Gillard
ORGANIZER
Sophie Gillard is an Organizer at JALSA. Sophie graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with majors in Anthropology and Human Rights, and minors in History and French. At Barnard and in her hometown of Houston, she worked in immigration clinics providing refugees and asylum seekers with free legal services. She also organized to build support for children and adults incarcerated in immigration detention centers in Texas. Beyond immigration, her policy background includes work in civil liberties protection, housing advocacy, eviction defense, and criminal justice reform. Sophie is excited to leave behind the beloved swamps of her native Houston and explore the mountains and beaches of New England.
sophie(at)jalsa.dot.org
Lynn Peters
OFFICE AND DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR
Lynn Peters brings several years of nonprofit development and administrative experience. An alum of the University of Redlands, CA, and Northwestern University, she has worked with a variety of organizations to protect the rights and quality of life for youth, families and survivors of domestic violence. Born in Alaska, and raised in California and New York, Lynn now makes her home in Boston and is excited to support JALSA’s mission and great work.
lynn(at)jalsa.dot.org