Our Team

Dr. Erica Brown

Dr. Erica Brown serves as the Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and the founding director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. She has written 15 books on the Hebrew Bible, spirituality, and leadership, two of which were finalists for the National Jewish Book Award, co-authored two additional books and co-edited Ode to Joy: Happiness in the Thinking of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Beyond. Her Simon and Schuster book Happier Endings received the Wilbur and Nautilus Awards for spiritual writing. Her second book Take Your Soul to Work (Simon and Schuster) provides one spiritual essay a day to elevate a year at work. She has been published in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Tablet, First Things, and The Jewish Review of Books. Erica and her husband Jeremy are the proud parents of four children, four in-law children, and seven beautiful grandchildren. Learn more about her work at ericabrown.com and her Substack, sacredstamina.substack.com.

Dr. Shira Weiss

Dr. Shira Weiss is the Assistant Director of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. Dr. Weiss teaches Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University's Bernard Revel Graduate School and has previously taught at Stern College for Women. She holds a PhD in Jewish Philosophy from Revel, an EdD from Azrieli, a BA from Stern College, and has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment of Humanities, The Templeton Foundation, Ben Gurion and Oxford Universities. She is the author of Joseph Albo on Free Choice (Oxford, 2017), Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, 2018), co-author of The Protests of Job: An Interfaith Dialogue (Palgrave, 2022), as well as articles in academic journals and anthologies. 

Aliza Abrams Konig

Aliza Abrams Konig is the Senior Program Director of the Leadership Scholars at Yeshiva University, an undergraduate program to develop emerging leaders for the Jewish future. She formerly served as Yeshiva University’s Director of Alumni Engagement, Director of Student Life at Stern College for Women and the Director of Jewish Service Learning, where she built the service-learning curriculum and established student travel missions around the world. Earlier in Aliza's career she served as Assistant Principal at Central, Yeshiva University High School for Girls. She has lectured on leadership, education, faith, prayer and issues related to the contemporary Jewish family, dating, infertility, surrogacy and family in synagogues, community centers and schools. She also serves as a consultant on experiential education.

Aliza is a member of the inaugural Wexner Field Fellows program through the Wexner Foundation. She has written for the YU Torah-to-Go series and is published in Ennoble and Enable: Essays in Honor of Richard M. Joel (Yeshiva University Press).

Aliza holds a B.A. in Judaic Studies from Stern College and a Master’s in Social Work from YU’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Aliza and her family live in Riverdale, New York, where she volunteers with her synagogue and other nonprofit organizations. 

Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Schiffman

Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Schiffman is an Assistant Professor at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School, the Director of Leadership Scholars at the Sacks-Herenstein Center, and an instructor at RIETS. He graduated YU with a BA in psychology, an MS in Jewish Education from Azrieli, an MA in Jewish Philosophy from Revel, Rabbinic Ordination from RIETS, a doctorate in psychology from St. John’s University, and is a Ph.D. candidate at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He is the associate rabbi at Kingsway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, NY and practices as a licensed psychologist in NY. His book Psyched for Torah: Cultivating Character and Well-Being Through the Weekly Parsha, his academic and popular articles, as well as many of his lectures, are accessible on his website, www.PsychedForTorah.com.

Sara Cohen

Sara Cohen is a recent summa cum laude graduate of Yeshiva University, where she majored in Media Studies and was consistently named to the Dean’s List. She was also the recipient of The Dean David and Sarrah Mirsky Memorial Award for Excellence in English. Her writing has been featured in The YU Commentator, The Jewish Link, and The NYU Review, reflecting her passion for storytelling and contemporary Jewish life. Originally from Teaneck, New Jersey, Sara loves to travel and finds creative inspiration in the people and cultures she meets along the way.