*Additional speakers are to be announced.

Maggie Feinstein

 Executive Director, 10.27 Healing Partnership

Maggie Feinstein, Executive Director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, is a master’s level professional counselor who has distinguished herself in the field of integrated mental health. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in International Relations and received her master’s degree from the University of San Francisco in Counseling Psychology. She worked in San Francisco and Anchorage before returning to Pittsburgh. Maggie has presented at professional conferences on topics of juvenile justice reform, collaborative health care, and now the impacts of violent extremism. She currently resides in Squirrel Hill with her husband and two children.

Amy Mallinger

 REACH Speaker, 10.27 Healing Partnership

Amy Mallinger helped in the formation of the REACH Speakers Bureau and continues to spearhead much of its efforts. Her grandmother, Rose Mallinger, was killed on October 27th, and her aunt, Andrea Wedner, was injured.

Amy Mallinger loves speaking to students, journalists, and other groups about her grandmother, antisemitism, and Judaism. She was born and raised in Squirrel Hill and the Tree of Life synagogue, and grew up within walking distance to her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. 

After her first speaking engagements after Oct. 27th, Amy realized how healing and important it was for her and her family to speak to students at schools. She helped establish REACH in order to make this opportunity accessible and comfortable for all families and survivors of Oct. 27th.

Andrea Mallinger

 REACH Speaker, 10.27 Healing Partnership

Andrea hopes that by participating in REACH she can encourage students and schools to become more inclusive and kinder. She’s continuously inspired by the students she meets who are developing clubs against hate and participating in LIGHT Initiative events, classes and programs. She likes to focus in her speaking engagements on what people can do to make the world a better place, whether it’s raising awareness of bullying or advocating for acceptance of other people, no matter what religion they are or where they came from.

Andrea’s family has always been very active in Tree of Life. She and her husband, Ron Wedner, were married in the Pervin Chapel of the synagogue, the same location where the shooting would eventually take place. Andrea remembers helping out on Sunday mornings with men’s club breakfasts and spending a lot of time in the synagogue with her parents, children, and extended family. “There were so many occasions and happy memories there,” she said, remembering the synagogue that used to be so hustling and bustling that they required two services on High Holidays to fit the number of congregants. “It was just a wonderful place to be.”

Andrea was born in Pittsburgh and never left Squirrel Hill. She attended the Wightman School, Allderdice, and the University of Pittsburgh, and when she and her husband Ron married in 1982, she told him that living in Squirrel Hill was an absolute must. She continues to live in the neighborhood within walking distance from her extended family.

Audrey Glickman

 REACH Speaker, 10.27 Healing Partnership

Audrey Glickman has lived in Pittsburgh since she was born. She attended Allderdice High School and the University of Pittsburgh, where she majored in theatrical production and minored in English writing. Audrey has been an artist and an activist all of her life.

On October 27, 2018, Audrey was present in the chapel when the perpetrator began shooting, and she had to run and hide within the building until it was safe to exit. “The shooter killed my friends,” Audrey says simply. “The minute the shooting happened I wanted to shout about it. This is hate.”

Audrey believes that if being a survivor of the shooting means that people will listen, it is her duty to make sure that people pay attention to the ways we can come together against antisemitism and violence in this country.

Audrey believes in solidarity, in everyone coming together under a shared goal. She believes in consensus building and civility, and she wants to build a future where we can bridge divides and get stuff done. She began her activism journey in high school advocating for LGBTQIA+ people, and since then she has bonded with neighbors over many issues, including women’s rights, voting rights, the separation of church and state, gun violence and gun laws, and civil rights. During her varied career she has been a rabbi’s assistant, Chief of Staff for Pittsburgh City Council President, a managing director and director of finance and operations for nonprofits, a legal secretary, and an advertising production assistant, and she has served on many volunteer boards.

Outside of REACH and her activism, Audrey continues to be an active writer, artist, mother, and shofar player.

Dan Leger

 REACH Speaker, 10.27 Healing Partnership

Dan Leger is a survivor of the Oct. 27, 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting. Dan sustained life-threatening gunshot injuries requiring multiple surgeries, long hospital admissions, and extensive rehabilitation.

Dan is now retired from nursing; for nearly fifty years he provided care at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, The Children’s Institute, and Forbes Hospice. He also provided services as a non-denominational chaplain at Family Hospice and the Palliative and Supportive Institute at UPMC. His friend, Jerry Rabinowitz, who was killed on October 27th, was a well-loved family doctor. The ideals and values that guided their respective professions are ones that Dan hopes to continue through his participation in REACH.

In his private life Dan spends a lot of time making music, particularly as a cellist in a string quartet with friends, something he has done ever since he was a teenager. “Playing in a string quartet is very special,” says Dan. “You get to play beautiful music with other people and nothing can intrude. You are in your own universe. It’s a safe, comforting, healing place, much like the psalms, where you can bring any emotion to it and it will be okay.

Dan also loves to spend time with his wife and his two sons, as well as studying, reading, volunteering, and engaging with the rhythms of Jewish life.

Julie Paris

 Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, StandWithUs

Julie Paris is the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director at StandWithUs. Julie grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Tulane University with a BA in Judaic Studies with a minor in Business. After completing a fellowship in Israel, she graduated with an MA in Middle Eastern History from Tel Aviv University. She’s spent the last 25 years fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel in both her professional and volunteer capacity and is dedicated to educating and empowering the Jewish community and engaging both Jewish and non-Jewish communities to tell Israel’s story and fight back against misinformation. At StandWithUs, she works with organizations, community members, schools, and government officials to offer educational resources and training on a variety of topics affecting the Jewish community today and fight back against the dramatic rise of antisemitism through legal resources and legislative change. You can read more about StandWithUs by visiting www.standwithus.com.

James Pasch

 Vice President, Litigation , ADL

James Pasch is the ADL’s vice president of litigation, after serving as ADL’s Cleveland regional director (serving Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania). James is leading a legal advocacy practice for ADL during a particularly important time, as antisemitism and extremism become more mainstream.

Notably, in November 2023, he oversaw the launch of CALL (Campus Antisemitism Legal Line), a free hotline, providing legal assistance for anyone experiencing antisemitism on college campuses. The project has already led to sweeping changes that have been instituted on campuses and K-12 schools to protect Jewish students, after ADL filings.

James is also leading ADL’s legal efforts in fighting back against the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. ADL and Crowell & Moring LLP filed a federal lawsuit alleging Iran, Syria and North Korea provided material support to Hamas that enabled it to commit atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.  

In his time leading the ADL Cleveland Office, James launched a pro-bono legal assistance program to assist victims of hate crimes in Ohio and drove the region’s response in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

Fawn Chapel

Fawn Chapel is the National Program Director for Student to Student. She trains and supports program staff in forty communities across the U.S. and Canada to coordinate and train Jewish teens to give presentations in schools that have little or no Jewish presence. Each year Student to Student participants reach tens of thousands of classroom students, sharing personal narratives of who they are as Jewish teens, effectively demystifying Judaism and preventing and countering antisemitism.

Student to Student is a program of Be the Narrative, which, since last fall, has joined Jewish Federations of North America as part of its Community Relations team.

Andy Conte

 Director, Center for Media Innovation

Andrew Conte serves as founding director of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University in Downtown Pittsburgh. Previously, he worked as an investigative journalist, and he has authored several nonfiction books, including Death of the Daily News (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022).

Since starting the Center in 2016, Andrew has raised more than $8 million for community-engaged approaches to sustaining and growing local news. Most of the work takes place across 10 counties of southwestern Pennsylvania, and it includes projects such as the Pittsburgh Media Partnership with 33 news outlets, a collocated newsroom in Downtown Pittsburgh, and a local chapter of the national Press Forward movement. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership recognized Andrew in 2024 as a “catalyst for change,” and

Kathy Buechel

Kathy Buechel works in, teaches, and writes about philanthropy. She currently serves as executive director of The Benter Foundation, a philanthropic organization that focuses on enhancing the livability of Pittsburgh. Previously, as president of Alcoa Foundation, Kathy led the asset-based foundation’s global grantmaking and employee engagement efforts in over 33 countries.

She is the editor of A Gift of Belief: Philanthropy and the Forging of Pittsburgh, a pioneering history chronicling the region’s diverse organized philanthropy. Kathy teaches a popular graduate seminar on philanthropy and founded the Philanthropy Forum at the University of Pittsburgh. At the Hauser Center at Harvard University, she co-convened a summit and co-wrote Capital Ideas, a primer on how funders can sustain nonprofit health. Kathy has served as a leader of numerous civic and social sector initiatives both nationally and locally. She earned an honors A.B. from Brown University and an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Debra DeCourcy

 Program Coordinator, Press Forward Southwestern PA

Debra DeCourcy’s four-decade career in communications has included success in about every aspect of the business: from corporate to government, from agency to non-profit.

DeCourcy spent a decade as vice president of corporate communications for Fifth Third Bancorp, a Fortune 500 company, and served in the same role for Angie’s List, Inc. In eight years as chief marketing director for Indiana Farm Bureau, she transformed a once-struggling department into a consistent award-winner.

She recently moved back to Pittsburgh, her hometown, where she serves as the program coordinator for the Press Forward Southwestern PA chapter. Press Forward is a national organization whose mission is to support local news in our communities.

DeCourcy was named Professional of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America chapters in both Cincinnati and Memphis and was named a Woman of Influence in Cincinnati. She most recently was named a 2022 Distinguished Alumnus by Point Park University.

She obtained her Master of Arts Degree from Duquesne University and has served as an adjunct professor at Xavier and Thomas More universities, both in the Cincinnati area, and Point Park University in Pittsburgh.

Stefan Oberman

 Director of Communications, JNF-USA

Stefan Oberman is the Director of Communications at Jewish National Fund-USA, where he supports bold initiatives that build a strong, vibrant future for the land and people of Israel. With over 15 years of global experience spanning government relations, venture-backed startups, diplomacy, and non-profits, Oberman hopes to make a difference at the intersection of purpose and impact, working with organizations that don't just talk about changing the world—they do it. He is also a New York Class-A Interior Firefighter and EMT.

Jordan Palmer

 Chief Digital Content Officer, St. Louis Jewish Light

Jordan Palmer is the Chief Digital Content Officer at the St. Louis Jewish Light. A lifelong storyteller, two-time Rockower Award winner, and three-time Emmy Award recipient, Jordan has dedicated his career to elevating the voices and experiences that shape our communities.

From 1995 to 2020, Jordan worked at KSDK, where he produced everything from daily newscasts to specials, including the creation of Show Me St. Louis and The Cardinal Nation Show. In 2001, he launched ksdk.com, ushering in a new era of digital journalism for the station. His work earned him three Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in journalism and digital content in 2010, 2014, and 2020.

Outside the newsroom, Jordan is a passionate biker, snowboarder, and craft beer enthusiast. In 2015, he founded Drink314.com, a blog devoted to St. Louis’s thriving beer community. Married for 27 years and the father of two college students, he is also the proud grandson of a Cleveland bootlegger and possesses an unrivaled knowledge of completely useless—but wildly entertaining—information.

Rebecca Phillips

 Chief Revenue and Partnerships Officer, 70 Faces Media

Rebecca Phillips is Chief Revenue and Partnerships Officer at 70 Faces Media, where she oversees business partnerships, user revenue, and events across 70FM's six publications and its flagship professional conference, the Jewish Digital Summit. She has a long history in Jewish and religion media, having spent 10 years at religion and spirituality site Beliefnet.com, where she was Director of Content Strategy when the site won a National Magazine Award and where she was part of the management team that transitioned the company after it was acquired by News Corp. in 2007. She has also led content teams at parenting sites CafeMom and Mom365, and served as Chief Content Officer at digital agency RevSquare, where she oversaw all content and marketing projects for clients like Showtime Networks, Kaplan Test Prep, ReachMD, PJ Library, and more. Her writing on religion has appeared in Newsweek, Tablet, the Forward, The Dallas Morning News, and ABCNews.com. Rebecca graduated from Columbia University and holds an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Susan Tuchman

 Director, Zionist Organization of America Center for Law & Justice

Susan Tuchman is the director of the Zionist Organization of America's Center for Law and Justice. Established in 1897, the ZOA is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States.

Under Susan's leadership, the ZOA pioneered the use of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and intimidation. After a ZOA-led battle which included rallying other national Jewish organizations and bipartisan support from members of Congress, Jewish students now have the same legal protections under Title VI as other ethnic and racial groups.

Also under Susan’s leadership, the ZOA triggered a decision by the Office for Civil Rights to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism when it considers and decides Title VI cases alleging antisemitic bias. The IHRA definition importantly recognizes that some anti-Israelism crosses the line into antisemitism, and now provides crucial guidance to the Office for Civil Rights when the agency decides antisemitism cases involving Zionism and Israel.

The Forward newspaper named Susan one of the "50 most influential members of the Jewish community" based on her legal work on behalf of Jewish students.

Before joining the ZOA, Susan was a litigation partner at Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, in the law firm’s Boston office. She is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Boston University School of Law.

Lara Putnam

UCIS Research Professor of History and Director of Global Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh

Lara Putnam is UCIS Research Professor of History and Director of the Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also serves as co-lead of the Civic Resilience Initiative in the university’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. Her research encompasses both the history of migration in Latin America and the Caribbean, and patterns of political participation in Pennsylvania and beyond. Her writings on online risks to children and youth have appeared in WIRED, Tech Policy Press, and the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.