Raising A+ Human Beings
Two leading educators, Dr. Bruce Powell and Dr. Ron Wolfson, bring their expertise to heads, principals, teachers, administrative staff, boards and parents charged with crafting a school’s culture.
Dr. Bruce Powell
For the past fifty years, Bruce has dedicated his professional life to Jewish education in settings from day schools to synagogue schools to summer camps. He has helped to found and lead three Jewish high schools and has consulted on the founding of twenty-three more throughout North America. In addition, he has provided consulting services to over sixty Jewish day schools through his work as president of Jewish School Management (JSM).
Honored with both the Covenant Foundation Award and the Milken Jewish Educator Award, Bruce has served as a founding faculty member and mentor for the Day School Leadership Training Institute at The Jewish Theological Seminary, and as a coach for the Head of School Professional Excellence Project at Prizmah. He directs the Institute for Day School Excellence and Sustainability (IDEAS) and serves as Distinguished Lecturer of Jewish Education at the American Jewish University.
Together with his wife, Debby, they share four children and have invested an aggregate of fifty-two child-years in Jewish day school education for their kids. Their grandchildren now attend Jewish day schools in Los Angeles. He directs the Institute for Day School Excellence and Sustainability (IDEAS) and serves as Distinguished Lecturer in Jewish Education at the American Jewish University. Bruce is Head Emeritus of de Toledo High School in Los Angeles.
Dr. Ron Wolfson
Ron is the Fingerhut Professor of Education at American Jewish University and president of the Kripke Institute. He is a much sought-after consultant and lecturer on building relational cultures for Jewish day schools as well as synagogues and their schools, community centers, and camps around the world.
He has had a profound effect on the Jewish community through his books Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community and The Relational Judaism Handbook (with Rabbi Nicole Auerbach and Rabbi Lydia Medwin).
In addition to training clergy and educators, Ron is the author of many books bringing the values and rituals of Jewish life to a popular audience, including God’s To-Do List, The Seven Questions You’re Asked in Heaven, The Spirituality of Welcoming, and The Art of Jewish Living series. Ron lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Susie. They are the parents of two children and the grandparents of two grandchildren, both day school students.