HUC-JIR New York campus

Dr. Miriam Heller Stern has been selected the new National Director of the HUC-JIR School of Education, effective July 1, 2016. Dr. Stern joins HUC after six years as the dean of the Graduate Center for Jewish Education at the American Jewish University. Since receiving her Ph.D. from Stanford in 2007, Dr. Stern has led the Graduate Center for Jewish Education with conspicuous creativity and success, launching new programs and establishing deep and significant relationships among her colleagues worldwide. Dr. Stern has published widely in the field of Jewish education, as editor and author, establishing herself as a thought leader in both the practice and theory of education.

Though Dr. Stern’s dissertation focused on the history of American Jewish education, her recent work has fashioned that perspective into a tool for shaping Jewish education in our communities, looking forward. In this way, her scholarly articles have re-evaluated historical assumptions, and her popular publications, such as “The Creativity Imperative,” have posed the key educational challenges of the future. Dr. Stern launched “Dream Lab,” a collaboration between artists and educators, to position both as change-makers in the field of Jewish education.

Dr. Stern is charged with the task not only of directing the Rhea Hirsch School of Education, but also of leading a strategic process to chart the future of HUC’s work in Jewish Education across programs and geographic locations.