Pronouns: she/her
Dana Sheanin is Jewish LearningWorks’ first female Chief Executive Officer. She is the founder of Voices for Good, a Jewish LearningWorks initiative focused on amplifying the voices of women professional leaders. Her career has afforded her the opportunity to support a variety of Jewish organizations in the areas of strategic initiative design, organizational capacity building and professional development. Dana believes in the sustaining power of our community’s legacy organizations, and is fortunate to have served two Federations — UJA Federation of New York and the Jewish Federation of the East Bay — as well as the Union for Reform Judaism.
Dana’s professional writing regularly focuses on the need to recruit and invest in the community’s talent pipeline and on the importance of advancing women in Jewish life. She is also the co-author of a chapter on social emotional learning in Reform Jewish education included in Growing Jewish Minds, Growing Jewish Souls. Dana is a proud graduate of the Hebrew Union College School of Nonprofit Management and the University of Southern California School of Social Work. She also trained as a coach at the CoActive Training Institute. She lives with her partner, Sue Bojdak, and four children in Berkeley.
Learn More About Dana
Where did you grow up?
Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley — yes I AM a Valley Girl.
What is your favorite dessert?
Apple or Peach Pie.
What’s one thing you own that you should really throw out?
All of my paper notes and readers from graduate school.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
An obstetrician.
What’s the most used app on your phone? (Be honest!)
Podcasts.
What’s your favorite movie?
Just one? St Elmos Fire, the American President, Gosford Park, Hannah and Her Sisters…
Keva or kavanah?
Try as I have to go the other way, it really is keva.
If you could only celebrate one Jewish holiday, which one would it be?
Rosh Hashanah.
What’s the best thing a student has ever said to you?
An amazing NFTY advisor I once supervised told me she wanted to grow up and be me. She’s now a rabbi and an entrepreneur and way cooler than I ever was!
What’s your favorite part about being a Jewish educator?
Watching a room full of educators connect at every level — intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Or, when my friends and family call me with completely random Jewish questions!
