My guest for this episode is Mindy Berkowitz. Mindy has been Executive Director of Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley since July 2003.  In her tenure as Executive Director, Mindy partnered with the Board of Directors take the agency from a position of near crisis to one of success and growth.  Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley is well-respected in Santa Clara County, and serves thousands more people than ever before with a volunteer base of 700 people of all ages.

Mindy has many years as a nonprofit executive, holding several executive positions in several nonprofits. Mindy has also held leadership positions in many county collaborations. She is currently a member of the Santa Clara County Emergency Food and Shelter Board. Prior to this she served as a member of the Self-Sufficiency Task Force that helped set direction for United Way Silicon Valley’s Community Impact strategy.  She was also an active member of the Santa Clara County Child Abuse Prevention Council, Santa Clara County Children’s Report Card Committee; and was Projects Manager for Santa Clara County Disaster Application Center (FEMA) following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Mindy has a Masters of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis; and a Masters (and Honorary Doctorate) of Communal Service from Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.  She lives in San Jose with husband, Rabbi Allan Berkowitz.  They have four grown children and one grandchild and are tremendously proud of them.

We talk about what to do as an executive director when you don’t have answers to a challenging situation and other lessons learned from Mindy’s years as an ED.

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You can learn more about Mindy at: www.jfssv.org.