Leora Isaacs is a visionary professional with four decades of experience as an educational practitioner, program developer and administrator, researcher and evaluator, and as an organizational and community consultant.

Leora’s deep and expansive knowledge of general and of Jewish education and the North American Jewish community, honed over decades of work on the national and local scenes, make her a trusted advisor to Jewish community leaders throughout North America as well as philanthropists and foundations. As Founding Director of the Berman Center for Research and Evaluation at JESNA, she is credited with establishing and developing the first serious program evaluation center for Jewish education, and for advancing evaluation and data-driven decision-making on the Jewish communal agenda. She continues to lead the field with traditional and current utilization-oriented evaluation approaches that are most appropriate to innovation and change initiatives. Leora is known for her ability to pinpoint the key questions, synthesize expansive information, extract key elements and utilize them for problem solving and innovation.

Leora is the rare consultant whose real specialty is putting knowledge into practice through strategic thinking and implementation. A dynamic speaker and teacher, Leora provides the information and inspiration that catalyzes and fuels new thinking and action through presentations and workshops to a wide range of audiences from professionals to volunteer leaders and philanthropists. She helps communities and organizations overcome resistance by making change accessible and within reach. Working as a catalyst, coach and mentor, Leora supports change and innovation processes, strengthens teams, builds consensus and increases the skills and capacity of local leaders.

Leora knows Jewish education intimately – from all angles. For nearly three decades Leora was a member of the senior staff of the Jewish Education Service of North America, most recently serving as JESNA’s Chief Program Officer. Prior to coming to JESNA, Leora held significant research and academic appointments. Throughout her career she has gained a reputation as a master teacher at all levels of Jewish and secular education from early childhood through University graduate school, in virtually all forms and settings.

Leora holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (with a specialization in Developmental Psychology) and a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan.