After a long and exceptional period of service, Annette Hochstein has decided to step down from her position as President of Mandel Foundation-Israel, but will continue as President Emeritus and will be fully involved in the service of the Foundation.
 
We are pleased to advise that Dr. Varda Shiffer has been named President of the Mandel Foundation-Israel, effective July 1, 2010. 

Varda Shiffer has been with the Mandel Foundation in diverse positions since 1997.  Dr. Shiffer was director of the Mandel Leadership Institute from 1999 to 2003 and also directe the Mandel School for Educational Leadership (2001-2).  In 2004 she established the Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev (MCLN) and became its first director, a position she held until 2009.
Dr. Shiffer is a lecturer in the Non-Profit Management Program at the School of Management of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and is the editor of the periodical “Civil Society and Third Sector in Israel”.She has published articles on civil society in Israel, on the right to education in closed communities and on education in the Haredi Community in Israel. 

Varda Shiffer is currently Vice-President of Mandel Foundation-Israel.Her portfolio includes all endeavors related to the Civil Society and to Social Leadership. Varda Shiffer is a graduate of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Hebrew University (Dissertation: “Civil Society and Redistribution of Power And Authority among Government Bodies”.)

Ms. Hochstein is a member of the founding group of Mandel Foundation's endeavors in Israel, including the Mandel Leadership Institute. A policy-planner by training, she established the Institute's policy studies department. Ms. Hochstein has contributed to major policy-analytic projects, including the West Bank Database Project, and the Commission on Jewish Education in North America. She was trained in public policy at the New School for Social Research (M.A. degree), MIT (as Humphrey Fellow) and at the University of Michigan.