The Tanette Goldberg Memorial Scholarship for Social Justice

Danielle Horovitz – Labor and Delivery Nurse, Midwifery Student, New York University 

Danielle is a midwifery student at New York University. She was inspired by the experiences of her mother, sisters, aunts, and friends to commit her life to the pursuit of reproductive justice. Danielle discovered her passion for birth work while volunteering as a doula at San Francisco General Hospital. Today, she works as a labor and delivery nurse in New York City. When not in class or at work, she loves to hike, do yoga, and perfect her sourdough recipe.

Becca Bleil, M.A. – Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, The Wright Institute

Becca is a clinical psychology doctoral student who is passionate about working with underserved communities. She’s worked with children and their families for over a decade and quickly saw a need for accessible mental health services for those facing trauma and grief. Her clinical training has provided her opportunities to work with children and adolescents, low-income and multi-stressed families, survivors of suicide attempts, and elderly and disabled adults. She is in the process of completing her dissertation, titled Queer Thriving: Barriers to Quality of Life Among LGBTQ+ Adults, which seeks to understand issues of freedom and inequality in young adults in the LGBTQIA+ community. She currently provides neuropsychological assessment services to adults and adolescents in the Bay Area. In her free time, Becca enjoys reading, cooking, creating, and laughing with her loved ones.

Marissa Rosenberg-Carlson – Law Student, UCLA School of Law

Marissa Rosenberg-Carlson is a third-year law student at UCLA School of Law, focusing on deportation defense and related advocacy for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Born and raised in San Francisco, Marissa studied Near Eastern Studies and Spanish Language and Cultures at Princeton University. She graduated from Princeton in 2018 and moved to New York City, where she worked for several years as a case manager for Spanish-speaking survivors of human trafficking. After law school, she plans to work as a nonprofit immigration attorney serving survivors of gender-based violence in the Bay Area.

Annie Strugatsky – Graduate Student, UC Berkeley School of Education

Annie is a graduate student in the School of Education at UC Berkeley. She is studying Education with a concentration in Policy, Politics, and Leadership and is deeply committed to creating an equitable education system for all students. Prior to her studies at UC Berkeley, Annie was a fifth grade public school teacher in Oakland. She is interested in ensuring equitable access for multilingual students, and has served on panels and English Language Development curriculum teams to advocate for students’ learning. She is also studying the impacts of school privatization and its relationship to school segregation. After graduate school, she plans to work for a research agency to help influence better policy decisions that improve outcomes for all students.

Maya Eylon – Medical Student, Central Michigan University College of Medicine 

Maya is a born-and-raised Californian, who currently resides in the far-less sunny state of Michigan, where she is a second-year medical student. Maya is committed to ensuring every environment she is a part of is inclusive and equitable for all. Growing up in a state with high rates of homelessness, Maya founded a food recovery initiative in Southern California to combat food insecurity in this vulnerable population. Through her initiative, Maya distributed thousands of meals to those in need. For nearly 15 years, Maya has volunteered with nonprofits like Friendship Circle and Special Olympics to create more caring communities that embrace individuals of all abilities. While in undergrad, Maya created a campus community project advocating for women who have experienced sexual assault, increasing awareness and providing resources and support for women. Maya will continue her social justice pursuits by addressing healthcare disparities and taking action wherever she sees inequity in medicine. As a pediatrician, Maya hopes to provide compassionate care for underserved and marginalized families. Maya is incredibly grateful for the support of NCJW San Francisco and for the social justice work they do for our community

Leah Kaufman, Student at Columbia School of Social Work

Leah Kaufman graduated from UC Berkeley in 2017 with dreams of being a doctor. Having been diagnosed at 16 with an incurable autoimmune kidney disease she knew from an early age that she wanted to make sure that every child received the same level of care and support that she had. After graduation, Leah moved to Newark, New Jersey to work at a healthcare nonprofit where she soon realized that she was much more passionate about the social and emotional effects of illness than the actual practice of medicine. Since then, Leah has worked with chronically ill children in Israel to make sure they feel loved and safe during their time in the hospital, advocated for more equitable mental healthcare access to low-income children, and supported programming for low-income new mothers. In 2021 she began her studies at Columbia School of Social Work with a focus in medical social work. She recently completed her first-year internship at JCCANY where she supported foster children with serious healthcare needs from low-income families. She spent her summer at a camp in Southern California for chronically ill children where she supports the emotional needs of campers.  In her free time, she loves to read, listen to podcasts and spend time with family and friends. 

Ilana Shoyket, Third-year Law Student, University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

Ilana Shoyket is a third-year law student at the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. Before moving to Sacramento to pursue her legal education, she spent her childhood in the Richmond district of San Francisco.  Her family’s past, as immigrants and refugees from the former Soviet Union, instilled a deep sense of pride in Ilana’s Jewish identity.  Ilana has been active in her Jewish community as an undergrad at the University of San Francisco and has been serving on the Board of Directors of San Francisco Hillel since she graduated.  When she returns home to San Francisco after law school, Ilana hopes to start her career by defending access to reproductive healthcare across the nation.

Katya Lavine – Medical Student, Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University

Katya Lavine grew up in Marin County and is currently a third-year medical student at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University. She is pursuing a joint MD-MSc in Population Medicine, and her research focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. She is passionate about combating gender-based violence and has volunteered as a survivor advocate in the ER throughout medical school. In her medical career, she hopes to care for survivors of sexual violence and contribute to policy and advocacy work in support of survivors.

Sarah Ball – Nurse, Student at Master’s in Nursing Program, University of Pennsylvania

Sarah Ball is a nurse in her final year of a Master’s in Nursing program at the University of Pennsylvania where she is studying to become a women’s health nurse practitioner. Prior to beginning her studies, Sarah worked as a reproductive health specialist at Planned Parenthood Northern California providing abortion counseling, gender affirming care, cancer and STD screenings, and contraceptive education. She has also spent time tracing Gonorrhea cases for the CDC and teaching reproductive health education to adolescent girls in Nairobi, Kenya with American Jewish World Services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarah volunteered with a bilingual contact tracing team that focused on addressing the disproportionate incidence of COVID cases in the Latinx community in Philadelphia. Currently, Sarah works for a research study that is evaluating the effects of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for PTSD. Across her broad set of interests, Sarah is guided by reproductive justice and trauma informed care frameworks. She believes that universal access to reproductive health care is a human right, and she is studying to become a nurse practitioner so that she can address the disparities in women’s healthcare at both the global and local level. For the time being, Sarah is thrilled to be in clinical rotation at a community-based gynecology clinic in North Philadelphia and she is immensely grateful to the NCJW San Francisco Chapter for their support of her studies.

Alana Cree – Senior at the University of San Francisco

Alana is a Senior at the University of San Francisco. She is majoring in Sociology and minoring in Jewish Studies and Social Justice. Alana currently serves on the San Francisco Hillel student leadership team, where she works on student engagement and inclusivity. Her Jewish identity is a central aspect of her life and she holds ideals such as striving towards justice as well as Tikkun olam very close to her. Alana plans to pursue a career as a social worker or child therapist after she earns her Master’s in Social Work. She would also like to say a special thank you to the National Counsel of Jewish Women and the scholarship committee for choosing her for this immense honor. 

Julia Hernandez Nierenberg-MSW & MPP Dual Degree Candidate at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Julia is a highly motivated and enthusiastic second-year dual degree Master of Social Welfare and Master of Public Policy student at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Luskin School of Public Affairs. As a youth and family advocate with fluency in Spanish, she is interested in acquiring social work and public policy tools to continue advocating for equitable treatment and care of my community members. She has experience providing compassionate and methodological counseling services in diverse community-based settings. She is skilled in developing and maintaining therapeutic relationships and supporting families progress toward planned treatment and life goals.

Leah Pickar – Smith College School for Social Work, pursuing an MSW.

Leah Pickar was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California and currently lives in Berkeley, CA. She earned her B.A. in Community Studies and Psychology at UC Santa Cruz, and is currently completing her Masters in Social Work (MSW) at Smith College. She is currently serving young people in Berkeley as the counseling intern at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School. As a counseling intern, Leah provides mental health counseling services to 7th grade students, most of whom would not have access to mental health services if not for the school-based counseling program. Prior to beginning graduate school, Leah provided case management services to unhoused families in San Francisco for 2.5 years. She also worked as a counselor with trauma-surviving youth in residential treatment and as a coach to adults in out-patient treatment. Leah’s graduate degree will allow her to continue a career dedicated to providing strength-based and trauma-informed therapeutic services to children, youth, and families. She is grateful for the generous financial support she has received towards her graduate education from various Jewish, community-based non-profit organizations in the Bay Area.

Bezawit Getaneh Abebe – SJD Candidate, Golden Gate University

Bezawit Getaneh Abebe was born in Ethiopia. She grew up in Hawassa and received her LLB from Hawassa University. She did an internship in Ethiopian Human Rights Council where she assisted young girls and women who survived human trafficking from Arab countries. This experience motivated her to work in advocacy for the rights of women and children. After graduation, she worked as a law lecturer in Africa Beza University College, Ethiopia. In 2009, she moved to Israel where for the last 10 years, she worked in Legal philanthropic organizations that strive for the integration, empowerment and equality of the Ethiopian Israeli community. She worked at Tebeka, advocating for the Ethiopian community’s Human Rights, where she was lecturing Human Rights all over Israel. While working in Tebeka, she won a scholarship from the Israeli Foreign Ministry and was able to go to The Hague, Netherlands to study public international law at the International Court of Justice. She also worked in The David Foundation, which works on leadership and education for Ethiopians. Beza holds a masters in government and diplomacy from IDC Herzliya and a masters in law (LLM) from Tel Aviv University. Bezawit is currently a SJD doctoral candidate at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and a research fellow at Be’chol Lashon advocating for diversity within the Jewish community.

Chelsea Gelbart – MSN Candidate, University of California, San Francisco

Chelsea Gelbart is a nurse currently pursuing her Master’s in Nursing to become an adult primary care nurse practitioner at UCSF. Prior to nursing school, she spent 5 years working at NARAL Pro-Choice California advocating for progressive reproductive health policies at the state and federal levels. Her first major policy victory was passing the Abortion Access Bill, landmark legislation allowing advanced practice providers to provide aspiration abortions. This bill addresses statewide shortages of abortion providers and is grounded in decade long research around the safety and patient preference of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse midwives providing full spectrum reproductive health care. Her other work in reproductive rights includes access to contraception, sexual education, and investigating anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers. Chelsea is passionate about providing reproductive care as a primary care provider and choose UCSF specifically to be trained under a law she helped pass. She is also dedicated to serving communities with chronic health conditions and those facing access challenges, like those she experiences personally living with type one diabetes. Outside of school, she finds strength and courage through rock climbing, ski mountaineering, and trail running.

Laeesha Cornejo – MD Candidate, UCSF School of Medicine, Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved

Laeesha is currently attending her first year at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She is a member of the PRIME-US program, a five-year track for medical students committed to working with urban, underserved communities. She received an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from Pomona College in 2016, where she explored her interests in public health, education, medicine, and social justice. After graduating, she worked at the Low Income Investment Fund on an initiative focused on health, climate-resilience, and equity in six U.S. cities. She also volunteers with the Women’s Community Clinic’s homeless outreach program, delivering health supplies and services to women and children on the streets and in SROs in San Francisco. She is grateful for the support of the Jewish community throughout her education and plans to continue working to eliminate health disparities in urban communities throughout medical school and in her future career as a physician.

Lindsey Schwartz – Master in Social Worker student, California State East Bay

My name is Lindsey Schwartz and I was one of the fortunate recipients of the Tanette Goldberg Scholarship for my work in social justice. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, received my Bachelor’s from the University of Arizona, and returned back to San Francisco where I pursued work in the community. I have worked in both San Francisco and the East Bay with the homeless family population and in child welfare services. I am currently working towards my Master’s in Social Worker at California State East Bay, and feel invigorated by the programs diversity, the dedicated faculty, and being surrounded by like -minded students who share my curiosity and love for people of all kinds. As a professional, I hope to focus on issues of trauma faced by oppressed populations and support the community at large.

Naomi Violet Forsberg – Masters of Social Work Candidate at San Jose State University

Naomi was born and raised in San Francisco. As a teenager, she collaborated on the creation of a program called Expect Respect S.F. at CCSF, a gender-based violence prevention education program for high school students. The focus on understanding how oppression and interpersonal violence are interconnected and helping students to develop tools to identify unhealthy behaviors and create healthy and equitable relationships in their lives has been a continual focus in her work. She now works in a Wellness Center at a SFUSD high school where she supports teenagers getting access to mental, emotional, physical, and sexual health care. In this position, she created a curriculum for a support group for LGBTQ students in the district and continues to this group weekly. Naomi studied Gender & Women’s Studies at City College of San Francisco and UCBerkeley and is now pursuing an Masters of Social Work at San Jose State University. Her grandmother, Alice Schoenwald, was the President of her Chicago neighborhood chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women and Naomi is grateful to now be a beneficiary of the generosity of this organization.

Daniela Gilbert – Deputy Director of the California Partnership for Safe Communities

Daniela has spent eight years working to reduce gun violence and incarceration and improve police-community relations. As Deputy Director of the California Partnership for Safe Communities, Daniela has partnered with community, civic, and criminal justice leaders to reduce shootings by 30-40% in ten cities across California. Daniela has also developed trainings for police on how to build the public’s trust, and received a certificate of recognition from former California Attorney General and newly elected Senator Kamala Harris for this work. An Oakland native, Daniela graduated from Harvard College in 2009 with a B.A. cum laude in Sociology and a Spanish Language Citation. Daniela was a Harvard College Women’s Leadership Award Honoree, and received an Americorps Scholarship for Service. Daniela is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration in Public and Nonprofit Policy and Management at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Ali Wolf – Juris Doctor Candidate at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Prior to attending UC Hastings, she was the Training and Technical Assistance Manager at Girls Educational and Mentoring Services in New York City, where she conducted trainings and provided technical assistance for legal professionals, law enforcement and social service professionals on the issues of commercial sexual exploitation of children and domestic trafficking. Ali received her Bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University in International Affairs with a focus in Middle East Studies. She has worked both internationally and nationally to prevent and combat the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of youth, and plans to continue to work in the area of human rights as she enters into the legal field.

Jenna Klein – Juris Doctor Candidate at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law

Jenna Klein is in her second year at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Originally from Los Altos CA, she graduated in 2014 from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in psychology. Since coming to law school, she has been a part of a variety of student organizations such as If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, the Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights, the Boalt Hall Jewish Students Association and the Boalt Hall Women’s Association. She also serves as the director for the Boalt Anti-Trafficking Project, a student led volunteer project that works within the local bay area community to combat human trafficking. This past summer, Jenna worked in Bangkok, Thailand as an intern with the United Nations Action for Cooperation against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT). She is excited to participate in the International Human Rights Law Clinic at Berkeley during the spring semester and she is looking forward to working with the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City this upcoming summer. She sincerely appreciates the generous support of this community.

Polina Smith – MFA at the California Institute of Integral Studies

Polina Smith is passionate about art and social justice. She received her BFA in theater for social change from Concordia University in 2008 and is currently pursuing her MFA at the California Institute of Integral Studies, with an emphasis on art for social change. After completing her BFA, Polina moved to San Francisco to work with The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, creating theater with women who have been incarcerated and are living with HIV. Polina has worked with The Medea Project for the last seven years and recently finished a run of Birthright?, a full-length show created in collaboration with Planned Parenthood. In 2014, Polina founded Crescent Moon Theater Productions, a circus-theater-dance company focused on creating innovative and socially relevant work. Their premier production, In my Mother’s Name, won the 2014 Best of Fringe Award. The company recently finished a run of their new show, La Alquimista: a Circus-Theater Fable, inside the Tenderloin National Forest. Polina is currently working onBlessed Unrest: an arts and social justice festival that will take place at CounterPulse theater in February 2016. She is deeply honored and grateful for the Tanette Goldberg Memorial Scholarship for Social Justice. Learn more about Polina’s work at www.crescentmoontheaterproductions.com

Jamie Goldstein – Psy.D. doctoral candidate within the field of clinical psychology

Jamie is currently in her 4th year at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Jamie is working to specialize in serving adolescent girls and adult women with histories of trauma through the lens of social justice. Her clinical experience includes counseling in a high school setting in East Oakland, providing services at a drug and alcohol outpatient setting for adolescents on probation, and providing psychotherapy and psychodiagnostic assessments at a community resource center. Currently Jamie is serving girls and women through a private practice setting in Oakland, California. In partial requirement to obtain her doctorate, Jamie is conducting qualitative research on the internal assets that foster resiliency in adolescent girls on probation. In the fall she will begin her pre-doctoral internship at Western Psychological and Counseling Services in Portland, Oregon. Jamie is passionate about her role as a psychotherapist to the greater community and is committed to empowering the voices of the voiceless.

Isabel Ullmann – Freshman at UC Berkeley

Even at a young age, Isabel has used her passion and commitment to end human trafficking to educate others. She started Teaching To Stop the Traffick, and has since employed that dedication in her political work to make changes happen. She is currently a Peace and Conflict Studies student in the hopes of alleviating social injustices.