Deborah Heller (she/her), IMPACT Founder and Lead College Consultant, has been a college counselor and consultant working with students on the college process for the past 18 years. She has worked with inner city students in both Boston and NYC, private school and competitive public school students in NYC, as well as consulting with a diverse array of students across the US. Deborah got her MSEd in School Counseling from Hunter College and is currently an Adjunct Professor there. She works full time as Director of College Counseling in a competitive NYC public school and offers new counselors a program over the summer to build their college counseling skills. 

Maiya Edelson (she/her), Vice President of Organizational Learning and Development at Hillel International, came to Hillel International after leading the Texas Hillel team as executive director from 2017 to 2022. Prior to her arrival to Austin, Maiya spent five years with Maryland Hillel as assistant director and director of educational engagement and previously worked as program director at Hillel at Davis and Sacramento. In 2015, Hillel International named Maiya a Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence. Maiya holds a doctorate in education from the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California where her dissertation research focused on the role of mid-level managers in supporting employee engagement in Jewish nonprofit organizations. Maiya also holds an M.A. in experiential Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. in sociology from Columbia University (Columbia College), where she was captain of the women’s softball team. Maiya competed for the Israeli National Softball team from 2003 to 2013. She has completed the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Fellowship for Campus Professionals and is a Schusterman Fellow.

Caleb Levine (he/him) is a sophomore at Harvard University. Caleb studies both computer science and social studies and is a rock climber and photographer. He is interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has been involved with both Israel Policy Forum and JStreet. In high school he participated in both the Diller Teen Fellows and Bronfman Youth Fellows programs.

Laine Schlezinger (they/them) is a junior at George Washington University. Formerly involved with Moving Traditions local Rosh Hodesh Teen Group and a 2020-2021 Kol Koleinu Feminist Fellow, their activism project was a guide to LGBTQ inclusion and education in high school classrooms (bit.ly/Queeriosity2021). Laine brings passion for queer education to advocacy work in college, research, scholarship, and as assistant leader for the DC/VA Tzelem group.

Moderated by:

Rabbi Daniel Brenner serves as the Vice President of Education for Moving Traditions, where he weaves together ancient wisdom, developmental psychology, social pedagogy, embodied practice, and pop culture to help a diverse network of rabbis, educators, and volunteer leaders who mentor teens. He lives with his beloved, Dr. Lisa Brenner, in Montclair, New Jersey and they are the proud parents of three young adults.