Jenna Fields ‘10, MAJCS, MSW, California Regional Director at Sharsheret, has always been passionate about the Jewish community and social services. Part of her work includes educating the Jewish community about the hereditary risk for cancer. 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews of all genders are carriers of the BRCA mutations, increasing our risk for breast, ovarian, prostate, melanoma, and pancreatic cancers.

Jenna’s role is a combination of community organizing, volunteer management, health education, and fundraising. She attributes her ability to wear a lot of hats in this job to her multidisciplinary education from HUC. During her Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management studies, she simultaneously earned a Master of Social Work as part of the University of Southern California Dual Degree program.

Sarah Benor, Ph.D., Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics and Vice Provost, was her thesis advisor. Jenna shared, “One of my favorite memories at HUC was working with her. We worked collaboratively to think about how I could take my passion into doing research that would benefit the community at large.”

She fondly remembers a leadership development course with Steven Windmueller, Ph.D., recently appointed the Interim Director of the Zschool. Jenna said, “It was the first time I had seen or understood there was an academic framework for thinking about leadership in the nonprofit space.” As part of that course she was assigned to Marcie Zelikow, HUC governor and who along with her husband, Howard, is the Naming Funder of the Zelikow School and current member of the Friends of the Zelikow School, to serve as her lay leader mentor. “Marcie taught me the crucial role relationship building and lay/staff relations play in organizational development. The HUC program trained me in turning these theoretical concepts into practical hard skills.”

Jenna added, “When I started my career before HUC, I was told I had to choose one specialty and one path. I was always resistant to that. My advice is you don’t have to choose one specialty. You can find a role in the community that allows you to develop and utilize a lot of different skills and passions. The best jobs are the ones in which you can.”