Who We Are

Greg Beiles, Director of The Lola Stein Institute and Head of School of The Toronto Heschel School

Greg Beiles became Director of the Lola Stein Institute in 2010 and Head of School at the Toronto Heschel School in 2014. For the 18 years prior to being named Head of School, Greg worked and taught at the school is increasingly senior capacities. From 2008 to 2010 he also served as Director of Curriculum and Training at the Lola Stein Institute.

Greg holds an MA in the Philosophy of Education from The Ontario Institute for Studies an Education and is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for the Study of Religion, both at the University of Toronto. His research explores a re-framed vision for Jewish education.

Greg’s publications include “Jewish education and pluralistic engagement”, in Discipline, Devotion and Dissent: The promise and problems of Jewish, Catholic and Islamic schooling, ed. G. McDonough, M. Memon, and A. Mintz. In the PEJE publication, Jewish Day School Education, he published “And you shall love your God.” His column “Awe and Wonder” appears regularly in think magazine; his titles include; “What Makes a School Jewish?” and “Education for the Next Generation: Thinking in the Disciplines.” Greg has led workshops and presentations in a variety of settings, including The Bridges Conference at the Banff, York University, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, and the Lola Stein Institute, A few workshops titles include: A Critical Thinking Approach to Numeracy; Five senses and the Five Books of Moses; Metaphor and God; Understanding Understanding; Discipline & Wonder: Integrating the Theories of A.J. Heschel and Howard Gardener in an Educational Context.

Pam Medjuck Stein, Chair of The Lola Stein Institute and Editor of Think Magazine

Pam co-founded the Lola Stein Institute in 2003. She was a founding parent of The Toronto Heschel School in 1996 and served on its Board of Directors as Treasurer, Co-Chair, and Director. She is active across the community and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Jewish News, the Canadian Friends of the Shalom Hartman Institute and the North American Alumni Delegate Council of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. She and her husband, Michael Stein, recently established The Diabetes Leadership Foundation to strengthen organizations that mentor better diabetes self-management.

Pam earned a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics, pursued further training in cultural property in London and Paris and practiced law in Toronto. Pam introduced collective copyright management to Canadian visual artists in 1984 by establishing VIS ART Copyright Inc. linking Canadian artists to international copyright management through UNESCO. She has been Co-Chair of the LEAF Foundation (Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund) and a Fellow of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies.

Michelle Shulman, Vice-chair

Michelle has been involved in the Lola Stein Institute since 2006 and currently serves as the Vice-Chair. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Toronto Heschel School. Michelle earned an MBA at the Schulick School of Business at York University, and served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Students Network from 1990-91. Michelle lived in Israel for many years where she was the VP of a high tech company, Coresma, and in 1994 started consulting for other high tech Israeli companies that were emerging into global markets, which she has continued to do after moving back to Toronto.

Dvora Goodman, Coordinator

Dvora Goodman is a Jewish educator with over twenty years of experience in educational administration and Jewish experiential learning in various settings. Dvora earned an MA in Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University where she immersed herself in education courses and organizational behavior, as well as seminars in Jewish experiential learning. Dvora has extensive experience in summer programs, at traditional summer camps, Israel programs, and academic and arts programs. Most recently she worked at Brandeis University and directed Genesis, one of Brandeis’ summer programs for high school students, where she recruited students and staff, trained and mentored educators, and managed all the administrative aspects of the program office. Dvora also collaborated on other Brandeis summer programs, including BIMA, Brandeis’ summer arts program for high school students that integrates artistic exploration with Jewish learning and identity building.

Dvora has been involved on the educational, vision, and administrative sides of Jewish supplementary education. She worked for five years at Kesher Community Hebrew School After School, a program in Cambridge, MA that set the stage for a new model of Jewish education in the form of an after-school program. She was a consultant to a number of synagogues in the Boston area and mentored synagogue leadership and Jewish educators through a visioning and strategic planning process to re-imagine and enhance its Jewish learning program for children. She has been involved in coaching supplementary school principals in the Greater Toronto area as well as evaluating local programs.

Dvora has also been involved in Israel education through her work as a faculty member for the iCenter’s Goodman Camping Initiative, helping Jewish overnight summer camps enrich their Israel educational program.

Advisory Council

Gail Baker

Gail is one of the co-founders of the Toronto Heschel School and was the Head of School from 2001 to 2014. In 2003 she co-founded the Lola Stein Institute and in the past has served as the Director of the institute and the Learning Community Director. Gail has a MEd in Curriculum Development from OISE at the University of Toronto, and a certificate in special education and dramatic arts from the Ministry of Education.

Gail has extensive professional experience in various educational settings. She is currently co-directing the Intergenerational Classroom, a program where students from the Toronto Heschel School and elders from the Terraces at Baycrest learn together. She was the head of the Principal’s Association of Toronto’s Board of Jewish Education from 2009-2011.

Gail has written extensively about education. She is currently a columnist for think magazine, reviewing “Good Books”. Her previous column was Teaching Teaching. Gail co-authored a book with Otto Baruch Rand entitled, “Ancient Civilizations”, which integrates Jewish history with world history. In 2011 she co-authored with Judith Leitner and Pam Medjuck Stein an article published in the Lookstein Center’s Jewish Educational Leadership journal entitled, “Transformative Jewish Education through the Arts”.

Gail has been a presenter in various settings in Toronto and in North American conferences. She continues to be involved in the Lola Stein Institute and think magazine.

Ashira Gobrin

Ashira is a senior level executive in the corporate world, with experience leading global operations and human resource initiatives in multi-million dollar technology companies. Most recently she was the Senior Vice President for Corporate Operations of Vision Critical, where she led the transformation of the Global Project Operations group and developed vision, strategy, and implementation.

In addition to her professional work, Ashira has been involved as a lay leader in several non-profits in Toronto. She is the past-president of the board of the Toronto Heschel School as well as the chair of the Marketing and Enrollment Committee (2006-2011). She is currently on the board and a member of the executive committee of Bnei Akiva Schools of Toronto.

Ashira delivered the keynote speech at the 2015 North American Jewish Day School Conference, where she demonstrated the use of ancient texts to develop creative thinkers and innovators and unleash the power of curiosity in the classroom.

Nancy Marcus

Nancy Marcus is one of Canada’s most recognized marketing professionals in the consumer packaged goods industry. Her strategic insights and marketing innovations have made her an award-winning influencer in the industry. Nancy has revolutionized marketing launching new products/portfolio extensions; product quality enhancements; award-winning, multi-faceted PR, marketing and advertising campaigns; and a long-term, integrated partnership with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Nancy was named one of Canada’s Top Marketers for turning the Tissue category “on its head”, she and her team have collected over 80 national and internationally recognized awards for Kruger’s innovative marketing approach and leadership position. With over thirty years experience in Domestic and International Consumer Marketing and Sales, she is a member of the Kruger Executive Leadership Team; Past Chair and annual best practice evaluator for the Cassies; Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Advertising Standards Council. In 2014 Nancy was named one of Canada’s Star Women in Grocery, and awarded the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada.

Elizabeth Wolfe

Elizabeth began her career practicing commercial litigation with McMillan, Binch, before becoming Corporate Counsel at The Oshawa Group Limited where she later served as General Counsel. Since the mid-1990s she has managed a family office and private assets, while primarily devoting her career to the communal interest. She is currently President of the Canadian Jewish News, a member of the Lola Stein Institute Advisory Panel, and of the Board of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. She is a past chair of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and of The Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto, and has served on the boards and in leadership roles of many other Canadian communal organizations. Internationally, her current responsibilities include membership on the Executive of the Shalom Hartman Institute and on the board of 70/Faces Media (formerly JTA). She is an honours’ graduate of Harvard University and University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1982. She lives in Toronto, is married to Paul Schnier and together they have four grown children and three grandchildren.