Melanie is passionate about helping people to talk more openly about death and dying in order to deepen their connections to Jewish tradition and to one another. A native New Yorker, Melanie most recently served as the Assistant Executive Director and Director of Pastoral Care at the Marks Jewish Community House, a JCC in the heart of the Russian-speaking Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. Melanie has held positions at JCC Association, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, UJA-Federation of New York, and currently serves as the Director of PJ Library in New York. An alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Melanie was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary; she is also a board certified chaplain and licensed social worker. Melanie is proud to call Brooklyn home, where she resides with her wife, Hope, a Jewish day school educator, and their children, Aaron and Amichai.