Shellie Dickstein

Shellie Dickstein is a recognized national leader in Jewish Early Childhood Education and Family Engagement. She is presently an independent consultant and coach in leadership development for the field. She also is a founding member of Sh’ma Koleinu, a Jewish Early Childhood advocacy group working to increase policy and financial support to early childhood centers, educators and families. Shellie recently retired as the Managing Director of Early Childhood and Family Engagement for the Jewish Education Project. For over 20 years she led the strategic agenda to provide leadership development to spark and spread innovative approaches and models in early childhood education for the 250 early childhood centers in the New York metropolitan area, and for community early family engagement initiatives. She has also facilitated workshops and courses on family education and engagement nationally and internationally, including for the Whizen Institute, The Paradigm Project and as adjunct faculty for HUC-JIR in New York. Shellie has written and contributed to various articles, blogs and publications on Jewish Family Education including JTS Gleanings; eJewish Philanthropy, and Jewish Family Education: A Casebook for the Twenty-first Century published by Torah Aura. Shellie loves being with children and is very happy now that she gets to spend meaningful time with her own four young grandchildren.