![](https://mandelinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/karen-headshot-scaled-e1720016676674-1004x1024.jpg)
We are pleased to announce that Karen Spira has joined the Mandel Institute’s team as Director of the Executive Leadership Program.
Prior to joining the Institute, Karen was the Assistant Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. She holds an MA and PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis. Her dissertation examined orphanhood, the care and education of Jewish children, and the development of child welfare systems in the Yishuv. Her areas of expertise include modern European Jewish history, Holocaust Studies, and Israel Studies. As a doctoral student, she was a Schusterman Fellow at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. She also holds an MA in Religion from the University of Georgia and a dual BA in English and Religious Studies from the University of Arizona. She has taught courses on the Holocaust, Zionism, and the history of the State of Israel at Brandeis and as a community educator to high school students, in synagogues, through adult education, and senior life throughout the greater Boston area and New York.
Karen will succeed Ted Sasson who has directed the Executive Leadership Program since its founding in 2017. Ted will serve on the faculty of the program, as he continues in his capacity as Professor of Jewish Studies at Middlebury College, and begins a new appointment as the Ruderman Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University.
Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Karen!