Educators

Temple Administration

Educators

Tami Weiser, Head of School

Tami Weiser has a rich background of educational experiences. Prior to joining Wise, she held the position of Head of School at Heschel West Day School, and prior to that, she was Principal of Palisades Elementary Charter School. Mrs. Weiser worked in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 22 years, serving as Principal, Assistant Principal, and Magnet Coordinator for a highly gifted magnet; Annenberg Grant Coordinator; and classroom teacher. She was selected to be an Education Leadership Fellow, where she had the opportunity to fully understand educational policy at the city, state, and national levels, culminating with meeting in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, as well as the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education. Mrs. Weiser enjoys reading their professional growth literature and attending their national conferences.

Mrs. Weiser is passionate about looking at the educational process through many lenses. Using a microscope, she enjoys working with teachers and students as she focuses on specific classroom lessons and individual student achievement, and in 2022, she put that into practice as she returned to the classroom to teach Wise School’s sixth grade Judaic Studies course. With a telescope, Tami takes on the challenge of looking at our school for long-term vision and growth. She has been instrumental in the development of the Wise Learning Process with USC’s Rossier School of Education and the fundraising for Aaron Milken Center. She takes special pleasure, though, in viewing Wise School through a kaleidoscope, as she turns each rotation to see the ever-evolving and colorful community of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. Mrs. Weiser lives by the philosophy that, “Excellence is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution, and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.”

Mrs. Weiser holds a B.A. in Psychology, and a Master’s in Elementary Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a master’s in Educational Administration from California State University, Northridge. She is married to her husband, Robert, and has two children, Michelle and Jordan. In her free time, Tami enjoys traveling, exercise, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

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Jayne Rosen, Director, Aaron Milken Center,

Jayne comes to us with over 25 years of experience in early childhood education. Most recently, she was the Director of Admissions and Assistant Director at Temple Israel of Hollywood’s Bay-Nimoy Early Childhood Center. Jayne is known for creating interactive events and curricula that promote connection and support a life-long love of learning. Along with some of our Parenting Center Team, Jayne was awarded a fellowship from the First 36 Project, a groundbreaking pilot program by Simms/Mann Institute, providing professional development with the goal of facilitating strong, meaningful bonds between parents and children.

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Temple Administration

Sharon Spira-Cushnir, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer

Sharon brings to her role over two decades of service to Los Angeles-area nonprofits, including having overseen programs as Chief Operating Officer of two premiere social service agencies, St. Anne’s and Chrysalis. She also served as President & Chief Executive Officer of the nonprofit capacity-builder Executive Service Corps, leading a cadre of more than 100 volunteer executives in providing transformational consulting services to over 150 nonprofits annually. Previously Sharon held leadership roles at Phoenix Houses of California and the consulting firm Pallotta TeamWorks, after beginning her career with positions at the L.A. County Department of Health Services and the United Jewish Appeal (now Jewish Federations of North America).

Sharon has also served on the boards of directors and advisory councils of several local, statewide, and national nonprofit organizations, both secular and in the Jewish community. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Cornell University, including a semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her Master of Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where she included a focus on nonprofit management. Sharon’s husband Andrew is Chief Development Officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and together they are the proud parents of Freddy and Liza.

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Alicia Cohen, Director of Membership

Alicia Cohen has dedicated her career to facilitating the growth of Jewish community, and brings her experience in community building at Hillels, JCCs and synagogues to the role of Director of Membership at Stephen Wise.  She holds a B.A. in Theatre from Occidental College, as well as an M.A. in Jewish Non-Profit Management from Hebrew Union College and an M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs from the University of Southern California. 
 
Alicia and her son live in West Hills with their 2 cats, and she enjoys yoga, cooking and baking.

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Marc Entous, Senior Director of Technology and Facilities

Marc Entous is a proud alumnus of Stephen Wise Temple Early Childhood Center, Elementary School, Middle School and Nosaya summer camp. Additionally, Marc helped organize and teach our children’s Morning Minyan program for nine years. His parents have been members of Stephen Wise Temple since 1965. In June 2003, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture.

Marc began working as a Database Consultant for the Activities and Youth offices, and, in August 2001, became the Database Manager for Stephen Wise Temple and Schools. After taking on the role of Director of Information Technology in 2015, Marc is now our Senior Director of Technology and Facilities, putting his architecture experience to work as we build our new Aaron Milken Center.

Marc became a Bar Mitzvah and was married, both by Rabbi Eli Herscher and Cantor Nathan Lam. Marc lives in Encino with his wife Tonia and three boys, Jonah, Jayden, and Jordan who attend Wise School.

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Cathy Mansouri, Director of Human Resources

Cathy Mansouri has over 28 years of experience in Human Resources in a variety of fields from franchising, start-ups, retail, and non-profits but has spent most of her career in the non-profit sector. She studied at Santa Monica College and has earned HR certifications through several Human Resources associations. She truly enjoys the human aspect of HR and pride herself in being a voice for all employees and a great partner to the Senior Leadership Team and company overall.

Cathy was born and raised in Los Angeles and now resides in West Hills with her husband of 13 years (together for 25 years) Shahab, and their 2 boys named Naseem and Amari.

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Nery Medina, Director of Facilities

Nery Medina is Wise’s Director of Facilities, overseeing the maintenance, custodial, and security teams. Nery was born in a little town in Guatemala. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in Business there, he decided to emigrate to the US in 1996 in order to find more opportunities. He became a custodian at Stephen Wise Temple—it was his first job in America. During his 25 years at Wise, he was promoted to Supervisor and then Facilities Manager. He is happily married to Francis and together they have two kids named Kelly and Kevin. Nery loves to spend time with his family and enjoys cooking (especially barbecuing) for them. He also enjoys watching soccer games and reading. He is an active participant in his church community and is part of the financial committee there.

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Stacey Rosenthal, Senior Director of Community Events

Stacey was born and raised in Los Angeles, growing up in Chatsworth. She attended Mommy and Me at Stephen Wise Temple as a baby, and then moved on to Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge where she had her Bat Mitzvah and continued through confirmation.

After graduating from Chatsworth High School, she attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she graduated with a B.A. in Sociology and Business. Before joining Stephen Wise in 2010, Stacey’s professional career began in Chicago where she worked for the Tribune Company. She returned to LA where she began her development career at Beit T’Shuvah. Later, moved on to pursue event planning for The New Philanthropy Group and Your Great Event.

At Stephen Wise, Stacey combined these two passions — working initially as the Development Events Manager. Today, she serves as the Senior Director of Community Events, where her primary goal is to welcome and guide those who wish to host their events at the Temple through the entire process — from choosing a caterer to assisting with vendors and everything in between. Stacey also continues to work in Development, working closely with volunteers and lay leaders on various events and fundraisers. And being a sports enthusiast, Stacey loves to be able to rent out our facilities throughout the year, namely Katz Pavilion.

Stacey lives in Sherman Oaks with her husband Steve, and twin boys.

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Dana Rubin, Chief Financial Officer

Dana Rubin serves as Stephen Wise Temple and Schools’ Director of Finance and CFO after having spent much of her career at the intersection of entertainment, media and technology. She comes to Wise from the Sherman Oaks-area non-profit Exceptional Minds, a professional training academy and production studio for young adults on the autism spectrum, where she served as the Managing Director in a hybrid CFO/COO capacity. Prior to Exceptional Minds, Dana was the VP of Finance at music technology startup Qwire, and she has also worked at small- and medium-sized startups which were acquired by major companies, including SiriusXM and Warner Bros.

Dana moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to pursue her MBA at the Marshall School of Business at USC. Prior to that, she worked in feature film production with Academy Award-winning directors such as Terrence Malick and Brian DePalma after receiving her B.S. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dana currently lives in Burbank with her husband Joel and three kids: 4-year-old Alvin and 14-month-old twins Nina and Nathan.

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