ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal is pleased to announce that SooJi Min-Maranda will become Executive Director as of January 1, 2018.

“SooJi Min-Maranda brings nearly 14 years of strong executive nonprofit management to ALEPH,” says RP David Daniel Klipper, ALEPH’s Board Chair. “She brings strong administrative management skills, strong fund raising skills and strong organizational development skills – all of which will be helpful for ALEPH – while also being a Jewish spiritual seeker and guide.  Finally, she is a delightful human being.  I am very pleased about her joining ALEPH.”

Min-Maranda has served as the executive director of Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor, MI for nearly seven years, where she also teaches Jewish mindfulness meditation and embodied Jewish yoga. Min-Maranda also works as a nonprofit consultant, providing strategic thinking, direction, and support to clients in the areas of development, policy, research, advocacy and direct service. Min-Maranda most recently served as the executive director of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization that focuses on adolescent sexual health and parenting. At ICAH, Min-Maranda focused the agency’s programming to develop leadership among youth from communities of color; advocate for community, institutional, societal, and policy changes impacting low-income and marginalized communities; and build a grassroots network of allied social justice organizations.

Min-Maranda is a steadfast social justice advocate who believes in the transformative power of stories. “My Hebrew name is Seeprah, which means she who tells her own story,” says Min. “We all have our inner stories and outer stories, which are always changing and renewing. They are not always fully aligned. My hope is that ALEPH can help our selves, our communities and our faith become whole.”

Min-Maranda joins a strong leadership team that includes Steve Weinberg, Deputy Director of Finance and Operations, Tamy Jacobs, Deputy Director of Institutional Investment and Lynda Simons, Manager of Finance. Steve Weinberg stated, “I believe she will be an excellent addition – competent, articulate, flush with ideas, a mensch and practical. She can also be humble and vulnerable while still showing a confidence befitting ALEPH.”

Min-Maranda also serves as the board Chair for the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health and as Secretary of the national governing board for the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. She was a member of the Selah Leadership Program’s National Executive Cohort 9, a 2010 Chicago Community Trust Fellow and was awarded a 2010 Impact Award by the Chicago Foundation for Women. She served on Governor Quinn’s Illinois Human Services Commission from 2010-2011. She is a 2007 Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership delegate and a 2006 Leadership Greater Chicago fellow. She is a graduate of Barnard College and holds master’s degrees from Northwestern University and The University of Chicago.