News and Updates from AJU's Graduate School of Nonprofit Management
News and Updates from AJU's Graduate School of Nonprofit Management
The Changemaker Monthly
September 2016 - ISSUE 001
Rhoda Weisman, Dean of the Graduate School of Nonprofit Management
Dear MBA Students, Faculty, Alumni, Partners and Friends,
Welcome to our 2016/2017 academic year and what a good year it will be! We return after graduating 17 students in May, each of whom is dedicated to pursuing change and justice throughout Southern CA. With the addition of our terrific new Assistant Dean and recent alumna Debbie Green, 23 current students with diverse backgrounds, and a stellar faculty and curriculum in place, the MBA program is primed to take our work to the next level.
The school's new guiding statement, "Cultivating ChangeMakers with Passion and Purpose” encapsulates the work of today's alumni, our current students and our future direction. If ever there was a time for connection, collaboration and productive change in our communities – it is now. This was part of our motivation to create The ChangeMaker Monthly. This e-news blast is dedicated to encouraging knowledge of one another, exploring current thought leadership, and the conversation about the ideas and pressing issues affecting the nonprofit sector and the world.
In the months ahead we will be engaging alumni to help us design and create a thriving MBA network that will be value added for them, our current students, the school and beyond. Similarly, the same will be done with a new MBA Advisory Board. With enough impatience to build and enough patience to ensure that what we build endures, we will ask all to be our partners.
Contact Debbie and me directly, we would love to hear from your ideas, suggestions, and thoughts. (debbie.green@aju.edu or (310) 440-1260; rweisman@aju.edu or (310) 927-6188).
Best wishes for a new academic year filled with challenge, accomplishment, fulfillment and connections. Welcome again Classes of 2017 and 2018.
Rhoda Weisman
Dean, Graduate School of Nonprofit Management
Welcome Debbie Green, New Assistant Dean and Alumna!
Debbie Green, a 2016 MBA alumna with years of experience in media production and volunteerism, served as the regional Director of Programming for the Jewish Conservative movement. She has been an incredible partner since she arrived on June 1st.
Debbie brings a can-do attitude to everything she does, with a love for the program in her heart. Blending her career and academic experiences, Debbie will utilize the most current knowledge and technology learned in the MBA program to help cultivate our student talent. She will also work closely with the Dean to help position the Graduate School of Nonprofit Management as a thought leader in the field of nonprofit management and leadership, highlighting students, faculty and alumni as we move forward.
Debbie began her career as an award-winning television producer for J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency in New York and the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando. She graduated from Queens College in Flushing, New York with her BA in English, magna cum laude. 
Contact Debbie at Debbie.green@aju.edu and at (310) 440-1260. Welcome Debbie, our new Assistant Dean and alumna!
Orientation at Brandeis-Bardin Creates Community
"I walked into the MBA Orientation excited about the curriculum for the program, but I soon realized that I was in the presence of powerful change agents who will immensely contribute to the journey through this program and well beyond it." - Ernesto Hidalgo, MBA Class of 2018
The rural natural beauty of the Brandeis-Bardin campus in Simi Valley provided the perfect backdrop for Orientation 2016. New students and returning students joined dean Rhoda Weisman and assistant dean Debbie Green for a full day of outdoor and indoor team building activities.
“We created a sense of community and reinforced the idea that we are there to help and support each other,” said Franky Arechiga, who will graduate with the MBA Class of 2017. Throughout the day, leaders from both the incoming and returning classes identified different leadership styles and broke into teams to meet several fun challenges, such as building stable balloon structures with a strong foundation.
Orientation laid a strong foundation for the MBA ChangeMakers to continue to challenge and to support one other. “It was fantastic meeting everyone, learning their stories, and why they are committed to the program,” explained incoming student Michelle Laredo. “The day was inspiring and made me excited to hit the ground running.”
Visit the Graduate School in Nonprofit Management program Facebook page to see all of our photos from Orientation - and to keep up to date on what's happening within the program!
What happens when Dining + Donating = Dinating?
Sheera Goren, founder of “Dinating,” shared her story with the MBA Advanced Social Entrepreneurship class. Eat Well. Do Good. That’s the simple motto behind “Dinating,” the nonprofit organization founded by social entrepreneur Sheera Goren. Like many in the MBA program, Sheera was searching for a creative way to blend one of her passions – dining at LA hot spots like Cleo and Picca – with her desire to impact the community in a meaningful way. And so she created Dinating.
Based in Los Angeles, Dinating organizes exceptional meals across town for a fixed price. In return, Dinating’s proceeds help provide meals to those in need. Dinating partners with SOVA Community Food & Resource Program and has delivered over 14,000 meals to date. Most importantly, says Sheera, Dinating offers a monthly volunteer activity where “dinators” can see their impact firsthand.
To learn more about Dinating, click here.
Matt Weintraub, Class of 2018
Matt Weintraub: Focusing on the intersection of spirituality, innovation and sustainable change
Matt Weintraub’s participation in the MBA program goes hand-in-hand with a major career change: a shift from the corporate world to the nonprofit sector. Although he is now the Assistant Director at Ikar, a Jewish spiritual community in Los Angeles, Matt began his professional career working at prestigious for-profit companies including Cornerstone OnDemand and Loeb & Loeb law firm. He later decided to carry his background in marketing and communications to the nonprofit sector and, more specifically, to the Jewish community.
Matt oversaw all marketing strategy, content and delivery for the Professional Leaders Project, a social venture start-up that led to his former positions as Director of Marketing and Communications at several renowned Jewish organizations. Matt is guided by his passionate interest in empowering talent to actualize their potential as they further important causes in the Jewish community.
Matt’s involvement in Judaism was a path he chose that grew from his childhood summer camp and Jewish college group experiences, to now being a parent of two young children. Matt wants to further his own potential by earning his nonprofit MBA degree and making innovative and sustainable change in the Jewish community.

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