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Israel Action Network Staff
Geri Palast, IAN Managing Director, is responsible for overall IAN operations and directs and supervises all IAN staff. She has extensive experience organizing and leading broad-based national grassroots and legislative issue campaigns. From 2000-2011, she founded and ran two NGOs on school finance reform to ensure adequate funding for poor children and justice system reform. From 1993-2000, she served as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs during the Clinton Administration. Previously, she served as the national Legislative and Political Director of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). She has served on numerous boards, including the JCPA, taught at universities, ran three social justice NGOs and she is an attorney.
Martin Raffel, IAN Project Director, is also the Senior Vice President of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), where he has served as the lead professional on Israel, world Jewry and international human rights for the past twenty-five years. Before coming to the JCPA, he worked in Philadelphia for the American Jewish Committee and American Jewish Congress. He earned a Law degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College.
David Dabscheck, IAN’s Deputy Managing Director, oversees the continental strategy of the organization and the formation of strategic partnerships with other global and continental institutions active in this arena. David is a founder and co-President of the Community Security Service (CSS) and formerly the Director of Strategic Initiatives and on the senior leadership team for The David Project. His writings on political and public affairs have appeared in a range of publications and in 2011 The Jewish Week named him one of the “36 Under 36” young leaders innovatively shaping the community. David holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Queensland, Australia, an MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently in the Executive MBA program at Columbia University..
Emily Hochberg, Director of Communications, Social Media and Research, is in charge of IAN’s communications, public relations and social media work. This includes writing and editing IAN’s website content and blog, as well as the IAN Insider newsletter, press releases, memos and briefings. She also serves as the managing editor on IAN publications and is the voice behind IAN’s social media channels. Emily previously worked at MTV.com, producing the websites for the MTV Movie Awards, Video Music Awards and TV shows ‘The City’ and ‘The Hills’, in addition to writing and producing for the MTV Style Blog. She has also written and reported extensively for People Magazine, Comcast.com, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and many others, in addition to past work as a celebrity talent booker for the TV networks ReelzChannel, MGM and the Science Channel. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the George Washington University.
Noam Gilboord, IAN’s Director of Community Strategy, is responsible for strengthening the capacity of local community professionals in combating the assault on Israel’s legitimacy. In this role, he coordinates the activities of the field of Israel advocates throughout North America, leads mobilization programming and proactively builds partnerships with communities vulnerable to anti-Israel messaging. Noam was formerly the Coordinator for Israel and International Affairs at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, where he was instrumental in successfully defeating the Park Slope Food Coop’s motion to join the BDS movement and in collecting over 107,000 signatures opposing the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. Noam holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Archaeology from the University of Toronto and a dual Master’s of Arts in Near Eastern & Judaic Studies and Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University.
Anide Charles, Executive Assistant, joined Israel Action Network in March 2011. She supports the team on a variety of administrative projects and works closely with the managing director. Working with IAN, her interests in communal work has rapidly grown and she hopes to one day take what she’s learned to help with the ongoing issues in her native country of Haiti. Anide holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Charter Oak State College.
Staff locations: Geri, Martin, David, Noam and Anide are located at the JCPA offices in New York. Emily is located at the JFNA New York offices, working in coordination with Joe Berkofsky, Managing Director of Communications and Media Relations in the Strategic Marketing and Communications Department.
The best way to reach IAN staff is to contact IAN’s Executive Assistant Anide Charles, who is located at the JCPA offices, at ACharles@the jcpa.org or 212-684-7046.