The Safety Respect Equity Network is a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund (NVF).
Our Team
Elana Wien
Executive Director
Ventura, California
Elana Wien
Elana Wien (she/her/hers) is the inaugural Executive Director of the Safety Respect Equity (SRE) Network, a national Jewish network of over 125 organizations committed to creating safe, respectful, equitable workplaces and communal spaces in North America. SRE Network is focused on building community, research & learning, and strategic community investments using an intersectional lens of gender justice.
A trusted community leader, Elana brings a wealth of experience. Prior to joining SRE Network in November 2019, she served as vice president for the Center for Designed Philanthropy at the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles where she led grant programs and provided philanthropic counsel to individuals and families, overseeing $100M in grants benefiting hundreds of nonprofits over the course of her tenure.
Elana has a strong track record of supporting innovation, building capacity, fostering meaningful partnerships, and taking projects and organizations to scale. With a passion for civil rights, community relations, strategic communications, fundraising and advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, her prior roles have included assistant regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles and consultant to nonprofit clients including a regional medical center, a national early childhood think tank, a major LA County community clinic system, and a youth homeless services agency.
Elana graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in geography and received a master’s degree in anthropology from the Universidad de las Americas as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Mexico. Elana is a Wexner Field Fellow (2018-2021), a graduate of the Coro SoCal Women in Leadership Cohort 2, a member of the LGBTQ Professionals Network of Southern California Grantmakers, a member of the SAM Initiative women’s giving circle, and a partner of Social Venture Partners LA. She was featured as an “Amazing Woman in the World of Philanthropy” in local Los Angeles media. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she currently resides in Ventura, California with her wife and children, having also lived in the Bay Area, Washington, D.C., NYC, Brazil, Mexico and Spain.
Read the Press Release
Read Elana’s Open Letter to the SRE Community
Guila Benchimol
Senior Advisor, Research & Learning
Toronto, Canada
Guila Benchimol
Senior Advisor, Research & Learning
Toronto, Canada
Dr. Guila Benchimol (she/her/hers) is the Senior Advisor on Research and Learning with the SRE Network and was one of the key advisors who guided its launch in early 2018. Guila also serves as Principal Researcher for the Center for Communal Research at the Orthodox Union. As a researcher and public educator on sexual violence, she has crafted standards and policies for Jewish workplaces, institutions, and communal spaces and has been invited to address Jewish professionals and clergy across Canada and the US, as well as other faith communities.
Guila holds a PhD in Sociological Criminology and an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Her doctoral dissertation examined how victims of sexual violence become advocates and activists against sexual violence, and explored the processes that survivors experience, including victimization and disclosures, which lead them to advocate. Her MA thesis examined the 2011 murder of Leiby Kletzky (z”l) in Brooklyn, NY and its impact on the orthodox Jewish community as they discussed addressing communal concerns that arose from the crime and its aftermath.
Guila serves as a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence, where she works on projects related to homicide and domestic violence deaths, and sits on the board of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Her first career as a Jewish educator informed her understanding of the need to address victimization of all kinds in Jewish communities. She was the Director of Judaic Studies at Tiferes Bais Yaakov where she also taught grades 9 through 12. She was also the Managing Director for the National Conference of Synagogue Youth in Canada, where she founded and directed an international camp for high school girls. Guila lives in Toronto and was raised in the Spanish Moroccan Jewish community there which was built by the families who fled Tangiers.
Rachel Faulkner
Director of Community Investments
Washington, District of Columbia
Rachel Faulkner
Director of Community Investments
Washington, District of Columbia
Rachel (pronouns: any) will be joining the SRE Network team as Director of Community Investments in mid-December 2020. In this role, she has strategic and operational responsibility for the community investments portfolio, which includes grantmaking, contracts, research & learning, and funder & partner relations. As educator, organizer, coach and consultant, Rachel has dedicated her personal and professional pursuits to ensuring equity in the education field and Jewish communal spaces. She previously served as the #JWOCMarching National Organizer with Dimensions Consulting, where she conducted hundreds of one-on-one meetings to better understand the needs of and ensure the safety of Jewish Women of Color (JWOC) in Jewish spiritual, communal, and professional spaces. She also consults with dozens of Jewish organizations from around the country in anti-racist leadership, practice, and operations. She most recently served as Program Director of Reading Partners DC, where she oversaw program implementation across 19 elementary schools and engaged teachers, principals, community volunteers, community organizations, school district leadership, elected officials, board members, funders, and more to achieve student literacy goals. Prior roles include serving as a City Year AmeriCorps member and program manager, where she created and implemented programs for high school students in Boston and Chicago; founding site director of Match Education, where she piloted innovative programming to support young men of color in staying in school and out of violence; and school leader at Citizens of the World - Silverlake, a diverse-by-design elementary school in Los Angeles that uses mindfulness, socio-emotional curriculums, and constructivist pedagogy. She holds a BA in Sociology and Urban Studies from the University of Connecticut and lives in Washington, D.C.
Reed Kolber
Community Manager
Bay Area, California
Reed Kolber
Community Manager
Bay Area, California
Chaplain Reed Kolber (they/them/theirs) joined SRE Network in November 2020 as Community Manager. In this role, they lead community-building efforts, with a focus on network engagement, membership stewardship, and programming. Reed previously served as community organizer and peer connector at The Kitchen in San Francisco where they led member relations and implemented online and in-person social justice learning opportunities for members. Reed is a chaplain, educator, and bodyworker. With over ten years of experience across Jewish movements, interfaith settings, and various arenas of study, Reed completed their chaplaincy residency at St. Mary's Medical Center and has worked in home hospice since 2016. A certified massage therapist and yoga teacher, Reed has had a spiritual counseling, life cycle facilitation and bodywork private practice for the past eight years. Reed received their Bachelors of Arts from Brandeis University in Women's and Gender Studies. They studied at Pardes in Jerusalem in a Year Fellowship Program and for two years at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. Reed completed a Masters in Judaic Studies, specializing in Jewish Values, Ethics and Action from the Academy of Jewish Religion of California. Their master's capstone project "Rainbow Lev, Jewish LGBTQ+ Teen Leadership Program Empowering Through Creative Ritual" received Jewish Innovation grants from Reconstructing Judaism and Clal to support the continuing of the project.
Lauren Slater Siegmund
Director of Operations & Strategy
Denver, Colorado
Lauren Slater Siegmund
Director of Strategy & Operations
Denver, Colorado
Lauren (she/her/hers) joined SRE Network as Director of Strategy & Operations in October 2020. In this role, Lauren serves as strategic thought partner to the Executive Director and Advisory Board, and directs community-building, operations, and communications. Prior to this role, she served as Director of Revolve, a community of diverse leaders who work together, through the lens of Jewish values, to build a more just society. Lauren has over 10 years of experience in the education and nonprofit sectors, having worked in affordable housing and international education, with a focus on teaching, adult training, online learning, and impact measurement. She taught high school and middle school English in Harlem and the Bronx as a 2012 Teach For America – New York corps member and also has prior experience as the Training Senior Specialist at Grounded Solutions Network, where she oversaw the organization’s annual conference, designed and built virtual learning courses, and facilitated in person trainings. She earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at Boston University in 2010 and a master’s degree in teaching at Fordham University in 2014. A native New Yorker, Lauren now lives in Denver, Colorado.
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board provides oversight and strategic guidance for the Safety Respect Equity Network. We are grateful to its members for their leadership:
Lisa Eisen
Advisory Board Chair
Co-President
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
Robert Bank
President & CEO
American Jewish World Service
Barbara Dobkin
Dobkin Family Foundation
Aaron Dorfman
President
Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah
Sheila Katz
CEO
National Council of Jewish Women
Nancy Kaufman
NKK Strategic Advisers
Idit Klein
President & CEO
Keshet
Charlene Seidle
Executive Vice President
Leichtag Foundation