Prior to coming to the JCC, Rabbi Joy Levitt served as a congregational rabbi on Long Island and in New Jersey for 20 years. She earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a master’s degree from New York University and a rabbinical degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Rabbi Levitt founded the Jewish Journey Project, an initiative designed to revolutionize Jewish education for children. As a lay leader, she serves on the boards of Avodah: The Jewish Corps for Service and The Shefa School, a new Jewish community day school for children with language-based learning disabilities. Joy is married to Michael Strassfeld, also a rabbi, with whom she co authored A Night of Questions: a Passover Haggadah. Together, they have five children.

Mairéad O’Grady is SEGL’s Associate Head of School for External Affairs and Director of SEGL at ALA in Johannesburg, South Africa.  She has been at SEGL since 2012. Prior to joining the SEGL team, she spent just over a year in Thailand, where she worked officially as a Global Ambassador and English teacher at Payap University while unofficially leading bicycle tours and hiking trips and directing a high school musical.  She is a graduate of Grinnell College, where she majored in Music and French, receiving Honors in French and the Steiner Award for Scholarly Work in Music. While in college, she served as a residential Student Adviser and the Student Government All-Campus Events Coordinator, sang as a soprano in the Grinnell Singers, and worked as a tour guide and interviewer for the Office of Admission. Mairéad has also served as an international program leader for Walking Tree Travel (Senegal and Thailand) and SEGL (South Africa and Rwanda).