Noah Hichenberg, Ed.D.

Noah Hichenberg has been preschool director at Gan HaYeled Preschool, Adas Israel Congregation, in Washington, DC, since 2019, and is an adjunct professor at AJU’s School of Educational Leadership. Noah has supported the strengthening of the Gan’s Reggio Emilia-inspired approach to ECE and nurtured the school’s antiracist stance. He also co-taught a two-year-old classroom at the Gan last year. Prior to the Gan, Noah worked first as a preschool teacher and then as school director at the JCC Manhattan preschool. Noah received his Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University, in curriculum and teaching with a focus in early childhood. Noah has served as the ECE Director for the New Director’s Institute of USCJ since 2021, a role in which he teaches and coaches Jewish preschool directors across the country. He has written a weekly "Noah's Note" for preschool parents and teachers for several years, using a critical perspective on childhood and school to spark community-wide conversation. Noah lives in Bethesda, MD, with his wife Shira and their four children. Noah and Shira met as teenagers at Camp Ramah in New England, and both spent a “gap year” studying in Israel.