Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life is pleased to announce the creation of a new program to support the global organization’s campus professionals. The David M. Cohen Fellowship will provide the resources to enable professional leadership development for up to 16 Hillel professionals, all of whom have completed at least three years as an executive director of an affiliated Hillel foundation.

Through the generosity of Abby and David Cohen, the David M. Cohen Fellowship guarantees that Hillel’s highest-performing and highest-potential directors are supported with tools to strengthen and sharpen their skills, resulting in greater professional excellence and increased capacity for the Hillels they lead.

The program builds on the success of such innovative Hillel professional development initiatives as the New Directors Institute supported by the Julian Sandler Endowment for Executive Leadership Development, the Harrison Leadership and Professional International Development (LAPID) program that arms new professionals with practical tools and seed funding to develop student-focused initiatives in their home communities, and Accelerate , a program that identifies promising professionals and prepares them for higher-level leadership positions.

The David M. Cohen Fellowship will be the central component of a professional development continuum that invests in and supports Hillel’s most talented executive directors. Beginning with peer coaching provided to a director during their first 18 months, the David M. Cohen Fellowship in their fourth and fifth years, and, for those most accomplished, conferral of “senior executive director” status after their seventh year, Hillel provides broad support for its local campus professional leadership. Further information and a formal application will be made available in October. In the interim, questions should be directed to Hillel HR Associate Sophie Krentzman at skrentzman@hillel.org or 202.449.6589.