Board of Directors
July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012
Wayne E. Batavia, President
Peter E. Metzner, Vice President
Jeanne Reisman, MD, Secretary
Philip Tendler, Treasurer
Ben Hamburg, Past President
Leo Hmelnitsky
Sheldon Kahn
Rabbi Yoel H. Kahn, Ph.D., D.D.
Rick Maisel, Ph.D.
Ruth Phillips
Janis Plotkin
Norman Price, MD
Jane Rabinovitz
Mark Reisman, MD
Carmi Weininger
Vicki Zatkin
Wayne joined the JFCS/East Bay board in December 2007 and began his term as president in July 2010. Since 1991, he has served as the president of Batavia Land Company, a real estate consulting and development company. Wayne has previously served on the boards of Temple Sinai in Oakland, the former East Bay Foundation for Diabetic Children, and the Diabetic Youth Foundation. Wayne also served for six years as a planning commissioner in the city of Piedmont. He holds a B.S. in business from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.S. in business, emphasis in Economic Equity Analysis and Advanced Appraisal, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wayne has been married for more than twenty-five years, has two daughters, and resides in Piedmont.
Peter joined the board in 2008. He previously served on the board of Temple Isaiah, where he and his family are congregants. For the past twenty-five years, Peter has worked in the financial services/investment banking industry, and is currently a partner at Cypress Financial Corporation, a privately held investment fund manager in San Francisco. He is a graduate of University of Southern California and received an MBA from San Francisco State University. Peter lives in Orinda with his wife, Aliza, and has two daughters, Julia and Claire.
Jeanne is a primary care physician currently working in the chronic pain program and serving as Chief of Health Education at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. Jeanne has also been on the clinical faculty at UCSF and teaches medical residents. She has previously served on the boards of Tehiyah Day School, Congregation Netivot Shalom, and LifeLong Medical Center. Jeanne lives in Oakland with her husband, Len, and teenaged daughter, Deborah; all three of them are JFCS/East Bay volunteers. Jeanne joined the board in 2008.
Philip is a partner in the finance practice at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in San Francisco. He attended Brandeis University and received his J.D. from Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall). Philip is an advisory board member of the Institute for Energy Law and his legal pro bono work has included clients of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Legal Services Clinic. Philip lives in Berkeley with his wife, Delphine, and their son. He joined the board in 2009.
Ben joined the JFCS/East Bay board in 2005 and served as president from July 2008 through June 2010. Ben also serves on the board of the Center for Youth Development Through Law, a pipeline program that assists high school students. He is a neutral mediator and an attorney with the Hamburg Law Corporation in Berkeley. His practice focuses on business and real estate dispute resolution, transactions, and litigation. Ben obtained a B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1975, and a J.D. from the University of California Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law in 1979. Ben lives in Oakland with his wife, Sandra, and has two daughters: Alison, a graduate of Wesleyan University and a masters candidate at Columbia University, and Rachel, a graduate of Pomona College and the London School of Economics.
Leo joined the board in 2007. He is the head of international markets at Mellon Capital Management, an investment management firm in San Francisco. Leo is responsible for trading equities, currencies, swaps, index, interest rate, and fixed income derivatives. He has previously worked at AXA Rosenberg, Schwab Capital Markets, and Goldman Sachs. Leo earned his master’s degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business with concentrations in both business administration and computer science. Leo is married to Anna Levin, another NYU graduate; they live in Walnut Creek with their two children, Adina and David.
Sheldon has worked in the insurance and securities business since 1970. In 1985, he became a member of the Pacific Stock Exchange, where he began a career as a derivatives trader; he served on the stock exchange Board of Governors from 1992 to 1994. Since 1992, he has been a principal of Headwaters Holdings, LLC, a proprietary hedge fund based in the Bay Area engaging in complex financial transactions in the United States, Asia, Europe, and South America. Sheldon lives with his family in Orinda, and volunteered with JFCS/East Bay prior to joining the board in 2011.
Rabbi Yoel Kahn serves as rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley. In addition to his work with several other congregations, Rabbi Kahn has also served as Executive Director of Stanford Hillel; Director of Curriculum for Synagogue 2000; and Associate Director of the JCC of San Francisco. He is also the former Chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council and former host of Mosaic, a monthly public affairs TV program featuring Jewish community issues. Rabbi Kahn was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and received his Ph.D. through the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Rabbi Kahn lives in Berkeley with his husband, Dan, and their son, Adam. He joined the board in 2011.
Rick joined the JFCS/East Bay board in 2007. He is a clinical psychologist specializing in work with children and families and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Alliant International University in San Francisco and at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. Rick has taught at many Bay Area universities and has provided training and supervision for numerous Bay Area nonprofits. He is the author (along with David Epston and Ali Borden) of Biting the Hand that Starves You: Inspiring Resistance to Anorexia/Bulimia (Norton, 2004). Rick maintains an active private practice in Berkeley and Walnut Creek and has two delightful young daughters.
Ruth Phillips
Ruth was the program director of the JCC of the East Bay from 2000 to 2006. Previously, she served for over twenty years as the director of a federally funded program for low-income single parents and re-entry women at the College of Alameda. Her other professional experience includes career counseling, women’s studies instructor, and early childhood educator. She earned her B.A. from Roosevelt University in Chicago and her M.A in psychology from the University of San Francisco. Ruth and her husband, Barry, live in Berkeley and have three children and three grandchildren. She joined the board in 2007.
Janis has been on the board since 2005. She programmed and produced the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival for twenty-one years and is now is film programmer of documentary and world cinema for the Mill Valley Film Festival. Janis currently teaches film classes at San Francisco State University and has also taught at Stanford University. She received a double master’s in social work and Jewish community studies from the University of Southern California and Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.
Norman was born in Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia). He graduated from medical school at Trinity College in Ireland in 1970; did his internship and residency in Miami and New York; and then came to the Bay Area in 1974 to join the faculty in Dermatology at Stanford University. Norman established a private practice in Walnut Creek in 1979. He is now on the clinical faculty at the University of California at San Francisco and practices medicine on a part-time basis. Norman has served on the Jewish Community Relations Council’s East Bay board and is currently on the board of the American Jewish Committee. Norman and his wife, Nancy, live in Orinda. They have two children: Jordana, a family practice physician, and Jacob, a U.S. Army captain and helicopter pilot. Norman joined the board in 2011.
Jane joined the board in late 2010. She is a Certified Gemologist and owner of a private jewelry boutique in Oakland. Jane has a long history of community involvement in the cities where she has lived, most recently in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the Jewish Federation of Charlotte, she served on the board of the Women’s Professional Network and co-chaired the Women’s Division annual spring lecture. Jane also served on the boards of directors of the Actors’ Theatre of Charlotte and of North Carolina’s Dance Theatre, Corps de Ballet. Jane holds an MA in counseling psychology and received additional training in marriage and family therapy at the Cambridge Family Institute. Jane lives in Oakland with her husband, Mark, and has four adult sons.
Mark is a physician with Kaiser Permanente in the East Bay. He also serves as an assistant clinical professor at UCSF Medical School. In addition, he volunteers at San Francisco General Hospital, where he supervises medical students and residents. Mark attended the Medical College of Wisconsin and did his residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He joined the board in 2007.
Carmi joined the board in 2011. She owns and operates the ReactorPanel Saddle Company, which provides ergonomic saddles as well as education to riders in the Bay Area and beyond. Prior to starting her first business, Carmi worked in computer distribution as director of sales and marketing and then in the contract electronics manufacturing industry as director of program management. Carmi has served on the board of the Metropolitan Horseman’s Association and was on a special commission to identify and nominate board members for the California Dressage Society East Bay Chapter. Carmi was raised in Berkeley, where she and her family are active in the Jewish community, and currently lives in Oakland.
Vicki is currently Vice President, Board and Corporate Governance Services for Kaiser Permanente and has worked as an attorney for Kaiser since 1983. Before joining Kaiser, Vicki was a trial attorney for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and in private practice in Richmond. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and has her law degree from Hastings College of the Law. Vicki has served on the boards of Tehiyah Day School and the Judah L. Magnes Museum. She has also long been active with the Jewish Federation of the East Bay, currently serving on its Planning Committee. Vicki and her husband, Steve, live in Oakland. Her daughter, Rachel; stepson, Michael; and two grandchildren all live in the Bay Area. Vicki joined the board in 2011.
