Genesis at the Crossroads’ Executive Staff

Wendy Sternberg, MD – GATC Founder & Executive Director - Wendy is the creative engine behind GATC’s mission and vision. She designed all programs to date and oversees production and implementation of performance/artistic programs, arts-education and humanitarian initiatives worldwide. She developed the current Executive and Advisory Boards as well as the developing Youth Board and currently conducts search efforts to bring in new board members and staff. As the consummate networker who facilitates all local, national and international community partnerships and global outreach, she masterminds and oversees all organizational development, including business plans and sustainability/strategic plans with the aid of consultants. Sternberg is responsible for branding of GATC and its relevant communications, integrating the efforts of GATC’s public relations firm, graphic and web designers, documentary filmmaker, photographer and information technology team’s social networks. She develops and coordinates the research team for the Genesis International High School and speaks on behalf of GATC at local, national and international symposia. Under her leadership, GATC pilot programs are expanding to globally reproducible ones.

For her work on GATC, Wendy has been featured numerous times as a WBEZ/NPR guest on Eight Forty-Eight and Worldview, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and UN Radio. She also appeared as a guest on CBS, ABC 7 & Channel 5 News Chicago. She and GATC have been the subject of numerous articles from The Chicago Tribune, to The LA Times and The Bangkok Post. She was named Finalist for the Berkowitz Award for Teaching Tolerance to Children, was featured as a Woman to Watch in Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine, and was nominated for Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 Award. She was featured as one of the 10 Jewish Chicagoans of the Year.

She is the recipient of the Publicity Club of Chicago’s Silver Trumpet Award in Issues Management. Rotary International not only recognized her work in fostering cross-cultural understanding worldwide with the Frankel Award, but also selected her as one of 22 global leaders from 18 countries to participate in the 2009 Rotary International Peace& Conflict Studies Fellowship at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

Wendy completed a 14-year career in Internal Medicine and her role as Teaching Faculty at Northwestern University Medical School at the end of 2008. Her former medical career informs the healing aspects at the heart of Genesis at the Crossroads’ global efforts. (hyperlink to more complete CV).

Stacey Ballis – GATC Associate Producer - Stacey contributes and implements curriculum development for Genesis at the Crossroads. She assists with organizational development, including the creation of staffing plans and job descriptions, and participates in the search and hiring of staff. She assists with supporting the development efforts for GATC, including making connections between GATC and relevant potential donors, and providing editing support to grant writers. She likewise supports existing programs and assists in development of new programs and evaluation of existing programs. When the ED is unable to fulfill those responsibilities due to travel or other circumstances. Serves as Acting Executive Director.

A graduate of Brandeis University in English Literature, American Studies and Creative Writing, she went on to pursue a Masters from DePaul University in Teaching and Curriculum Development for Secondary School. She went beyond her many varied teaching experiences as a Chicago Public School educator, with a year teaching English at Lukume Secondary School in Lukume Village, Kenya.

Stacey’s extensive theater experience includes her current position as Director of Education Initiatives for Shakespeare on the Sound Theatre where she is in charge of strategic planning for education, program design and implementation, curriculum development, teacher training programs, teaching artist training, and liaison to the education community. From 2000-2007 she served as Director of Education and Community Programs at the Goodman Theatre where she was in charge of maintenance and development of the theatre’s educational programs for students, teachers, and adult audiences, including the Free Student Subscription Series, the General Theatre Studies program for Chicago public high school students, a program conceived and developed during her tenure, and the Internship Program for college seniors and graduate students. She also served as Director of Arts in Education at the Court Theatre in charge of the development and implementation of all education programs.

She is the President and Founder of Dayton Associates Consulting specializing in consultation in the areas of strategic planning, organizational development, change management, arts administration, education, curriculum development and program design. Her training and team building for businesses, educational institutions and cultural organizations runs the gamut from Chicago Public Schools to Exxon/Mobil. In addition, her free lance writing ranges from creating original content for coursework to writing both popular food blogs and marketing materials for major brands. She is also well known for her authorship of five novels: Inappropriate Men (2004, Red Dress Ink), Sleeping Over (2005, Red Dress Ink), Room for Improvement (2006, Penguin), The Spinster Sisters (2007, Penguin), and Good Enough To Eat (2009, Penguin) for which she has appeared on the Rachel Ray show. She is currently at work on a new work of full length fiction and is ghostwriting an autobiography for a self-made entrepreneur.

Felicia Byrne - Executive Assistant and Refugee Programs Coordinator -Felicia Byrne is the coordinator for GATC’s Arm Them With Instruments, Chicago program designed to bring instruments and music education to Chicago-based refugee children who are participating in Refugee One’s afterschool program. (formerly Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, IRIM). In addition to collaborating with other agencies and organizations, she conducts grant research for this program as well as aids its musical instrument donation drive in the Chicagoland area. She is working on grant research to support the GATC Art of Healing’s expansion in 2012 to Phase II to impact refugee children. Additionally, she created and is currently running GATC’s social media pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Felicia completed a Master of Science in International Public Service at DePaul University in 2009 and researched the effects of inter-organizational collaborations between Chicago agencies resettling refugees. In Chiapas, Mexico, she participated in cross-cultural discussions with members of indigenous communities, NGOs, and Zapatista communities concerning the role of globalization, and specifically, the NGO roles in strengthening their sustainable development. Additionally, with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Nairobi, Kenya, she analyzed the role of the UNHCR and its partner NGOs in upholding the rights of refugees in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. Her independent research addressed the function of UNHCR in easing tensions between the refugees and host populations around the camp. In July, 2010, she will present her research at the International Society for Third Sector Research’s Annual Conference in Istanbul, Turkey.

She graduated from Boston College in 2006 with her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Hispanic Studies. For two years following, she worked as a legal assistant in immigration law, researching legal statutes, codes, regulations and precedents to establish grounds for clients’ appeals, asylum claims and relief from removal proceedings. She is a member of Phi Beta Delta International Honor Society, Golden Key International Honor Society, and Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and conversational in French. She is very passionate about working with refugees and developing programs that serve this often-overlooked community.

Genesis at the Crossroads’ Board of Directors

Michael Dallek - Although Michael currently serves as President of Chicago’s MD Metals, Inc. he began his career with a Bachelor’s of Science in horticulture and landscape design at Colorado State University. He gained expertise in designing, engineering and growing foliage and edible plants using cutting-edge greenhouse techniques. This led him to a four-month extended externship in Israel, where he visited every Israeli greenhouse located on both kibbutzim and moshavim to mutually share best practices as well as irrigation system technologies. In 1990, he segued into a self- made industrial entrepreneur, organically starting a regional Chicago steel distribution business niched to provide heavy gauge, narrow slitting and edging flat roll. He has since grown the business to fill a 25,000 foot space, also acquiring a warehouse on the South-side of Chicago. A harmonica enthusiast, by nature, Michael was inspired by GATC to bring the gift of music education to children in conflict zones. Replete with the manpower and packaging capacities, he enabled GATC to expand our humanitarian instrument donation program by donating his company warehouse to be the formal nationwide shipping and distribution hub for our Arm Them with Instruments’ program. A committed parent of a Lincoln School student, engaged in their music program, Michael is actively sharing GATC with that community. An avid outdoor adventurer, skier and sailer, Michael also makes time in between his GATC development work for Temple Sholom’s community service projects, including the well-reputed soup kitchen. With the Genesis International High School’s focus on green design and sustainable agriculture, he will embark on a journey to return to some of his roots.

Jaqueline Granat - Jackie Granat comes to GATC with a broad background in multi-cultural communications and cross-cultural issues, in part due to her long career at Rotary International, a non-profit likewise dedicated to world peace and understanding, whose membership derives from over 160 countries. Responsible for translation and interpretation services, she managed a large team of in-house translators and arranged for interpretation at Rotary conferences across the globe. She initiated the Cultural Awareness Program for Rotary’s world headquarters staff for more effective teamwork with the organization’s 1.3 million members, emphasizing the need to culturally adapt print and electronic communications tools. Born in Paris, Jackie came to the US as a teen-ager, received a BA in Sociology from Chicago’s Roosevelt University and subsequently worked as an organizational analyst at CNA Insurance Company. An active member of her community, Jackie has served on the Board of Beth Emet Synagogue in Evanston, and is a member of the Rotary Club of Wilmette, which honored her with a Paul Harris Award. Her lifelong interests include art, music, theater, literature, film, history and world travel.

Leonard Lehrer - Leonard Lehrer is a painter and printmaker whose work has been seen internationally for three decades. He has had more than forty solo exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Austria, Spain and Italy. He has had five one-person museum exhibitions. Museums that house examples of his work include the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; The Sprengel Museum of Art in Hannover, Germany; and some ninety other public collections. His work is cited in various books, anthologies and catalogues. He has also participated in national and international symposia including the First International Conference of Fulbright Scholars, Delphi, Greece, 2000 and presented the keynote address at Fulbright’s International meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2007. He is the former Director of the School of Art, Arizona State University and Chair, Department of Art and Art Professions, New York University, and former Dean, School of Fine and Performing Arts, Columbia College Chicago. He now serves as Director of the Printmaking Convergence Program, at the University of Texas, Austin. Lehrer also serves as a Trustee of the International Print Center New York (IPCNY), Trustee of apexart, NYC, and Trustee of the International Centre for Culture and Management (ICCM), Salzburg, Austria. Recipient of numerous awards including the Grand Prize of the Heitland Foundation, Celle, Germany, and two Fulbright Scholar Program Grants to Greece, both in printmaking. Leonard is the Chairman of the College Board’s National Task Force on Arts in Education in the United States as well as the Chairman of The Arts Task Force for the Fulbright Association. He is the recipient of the world renowned Southern Graphics Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Asim Qureshi - Microsoft, Vice President of Sales.

Dr. Keith L. Magee - With a charge in life to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, Dr. Magee, is a highly sought after preacher, speaker, lecturer and nonprofit executive. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Africa, Europe and South America preaching the gospel and as a keynote and lecturer in the areas of African American Migration, Faith and Politics, the HIV/AIDS Crisis, Philanthropic Management, Leadership, Communications and Management. His professional career has affording him rewarding opportunities. He is currently the executive director of The National Public Housing Museum, Chicago, IL. He took the appointment after serving as a Senior Advisor, Religious Affairs, with the Obama for America Campaign. He served as a senior director at the Museum of African American History-Boston and Nantucket.

Dr. Magee is a Harvard-trained and ordained minister, having been conferred a doctorate in theology. His ministerial calling has led to leadership at Berachah Church—An International Gathering of Blessing, in Boston, MA. His previous appointments include serving at Mount Olive Church, Dorchester, MA; resident seminarian intern at Mount Carmel Baptist Church; and minister of summer programs at Northminister Presbyterian Church, both of Washington, DC. He is passionate about providing humanitarian aid to children and families, especially in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa and in Soweto and Johannesburg, South Africa. He is working with Partners in Health, to build an interfaith Chapel in rural Rwanda. Additionally, he is the Co-Chair of the Governor’s Council of Chaplains for Governor Deval Patrick, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is the Co-Founder of Abba House, an orphanage project for children infected and affected with HIV/AIDS, in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa.

He serves as the President on the Board of Directors of Healing Our Lands, Inc., Board of Advisor of the Anti-Defamation League-World of Difference Institute, a Director of the Leggasy Foundation, and Board of Visitors of the Boston Center for the Arts. He is a member of the National Center for Black Philanthropy, American Academy of Religion and Massachusetts Bible Society. Additionally, he is a life member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., serving on the centennial committee and nominating committee chair, Boston (MA) Alumni Chapter, and has served on the Guide Right Commission and the Board of Director of Kappa Scholarship Foundation. Magee has one son, Pierre, who is a student at the University of Massachusetts. He lives between Chicago, IL and Boston, MA.

2010 Rising Board Members

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Chairman, Islamic Studies, American University, Washington, DC
Sema Barlas, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, McGill University, Montreal CANADA

Genesis at the Crossroads’ Advisory Board

Monsour Ajami - Arabic Language and Cultural Consultant (part-time consultant) Of Lebanese heritage, Professor Ajami completed eight years of study on the oud and vocal training at the Lebanese National Conservatory and went on to pursue both a BA and MA in Arabic Language and Literature at the American University in Beirut. He completed his Masters and his PhD in Arabic Literature and Islamics at Columbia University and has taught at UC Berkely, Columbia, Princeton and Washington Universities. He is extensively published and has recited poetry and given lectures and concerts of Arabic music internationally. He currently is the United Nations’ Arabist Reviser/Translator for New York and Geneva.

Esther Hershenhorn - Children’s Publishing Consultant (part-time paid & volunteer) Former elementary teacher, Esther teaches Writing for Children at Ragdale, an artist’s residency program in Lake Forest, Chicago’s Newberry Library and the University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and is the Regional Advisor of the organization’s Illinois Chapter. She was named SCBWI Member of the Year in 1998 and won the 2003 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Younger Readers, 2002 Best Books and 2003 Citation for Special Merit.

Mark Johnson - Community Outreach Liason (part-time volunteer) Executive Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation/USA, Dr. Johnson is a graduate of Ohio’s College of Wooster holding a Doctorate in Sociology from Columbia University, with alternative service as a conscientious objector in Lebanon, living and teaching in Beirut for six years. He served as Executive Director of the YMCA Silver Bay Association Conference and Training Center, and as a volunteer in environmental, arts, peace and social justice organizations. Over the past six years, he has been active with the Alliance for Middle East Peace and has supported the development of leadership and training programs for young adults at the Jerusalem International YMCA, as a member of the staff of the YMCA of the USA. Mark serves on non-profit boards of Associated Solo Artists/Creative Leaps International, Schools That Can and the International Student Exchange Program, the Advisory Boards of Girls Learn International and Whole Women Healing, and is an Executive Committee Member of the Leadership Forum. He recently returned from an inter-faith dialogue trip to Tehran.

Stacy Keach - Artisic Advisor, Music Theater Consultant (part-time volunteer) A graduate of UC Berkeley, the Yale School of Drama, and England’s London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art where he was a Fulbright scholar. Stacy has won three Obies, Best Actor Tony nomination and The Helen Hayes Award, the prestigious Millennium Recognition Award for contribution to classical theater, A Golden Globe, Best Actor Emmy nomination for his TV performance in Hemingway and Lifetime Achievement Award by the San Diego Film Festival. Alongside Harold Ramis, he will narrate our human-interest documentary chronicling GATC’s Saffron Caravan ensemble’s journey and global impact.

Robert Khoury - Business Advisor; Executive Life Coach (part-time volunteer) Robert Khoury is a Palestinian-American whose diverse childhood experiences living in Beirut, Lebanon, Jordan and Rhode Island drew him to Princeton University and eventually to Saudi Arabia with Price Waterhouse. At Duke University’s MBA program he co-coordinated the first business school venture in Egypt and Israel to expose MBA students to cross-cultural business practices, which included a private session with Shimon Peres. Rob worked as a derivatives trader for First Chicago/Bank One and NewArc Investments, Project Manager for GETCO and currently owns his own recruiting firm with a concentration on North America and SE Asia.

Lori Lippitz - Music Consultant (part-time volunteer) Band-leader, Vocalist and Guitarist Lori Lippitz expanded her BA in music to include graduate work in Slavic studies at the University of Chicago. She founded the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, launched the Midwest’s Klezmer revival, organized an annual Midwest Klezmer and Yiddish Music Institute, the Maxwell Street Junior Klezmer Orchestra and co-founded the Yiddish Arts Ensemble. She lectures on Klezmer music, is a frequent guest on NPR and Public TV and has multiple recordings. Lori helped create GATC’s original Arab-Jewish Fusion Project.

Hazaan Alberto Mizrahi - Music Consultant (paid musician & volunteer;) Greek-born Tenor, Alberto Mizrahi, is the internationally renowned Hazzan of Anshe Emet Synagogue and one of the world's leading interpreters of Jewish music. He has thrilled audiences at worldwide recitals, Sephardic and symphony concerts, and operas. His repertoire, spanning nine languages, makes his performances unique in the field. He has appeared as a soloist in Avery Fisher, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center… and on a world-wide PBS broadcast concert of the CANTORS: A Faith in Song, The Dave Brubeck Quartet in Gates of Justice and The 50th Newport Jazz Festival. He and is one of the esteemed vocalists and composers for our Genesis World Music Ensemble, Saffron Caravan.

Harold Ramis - Documentary Filmmaker (part-time volunteer) got his start in comedy at Second City. He produced, directed and co-wrote numerous films including: Animal House, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Multiplicity, Analyze This and The Ice Harvest, among others. He is on the Board of Facets Cinema, The Goodman Theater and is involved in After School Matters and the national program, Journeys in Film. He has served as Principal for a Day at Chicago’s Senn High, his Alma Mater. He and Stacy Keach will narrate our human-interest documentary chronicling the Saffron Caravan ensemble’s journey and global impact.

Peter Siu - Peter graduated in 2008 with a combined JD/MBA from Northwestern University, completing their Non-Profit Management 2008 Board Fellows Program with GATC. He graduated with honors from MIT with a degree in Urban Studies and Planning. He currently works at the World Bank in strategic communications and microfinance; in the past as a consultant to the World Bank, he facilitated communications planning for a multimillion dollar technology innovation program. Fluent in Cantonese and English, conversant in Mandarin, French, Dari, Spanish and Dutch, he has served as Communications Consultant for UNICEF/China and as a Research Assistant for the National Bureau of Economic Research. In his five year tenure at Chemonics International, he launched and directed international reconstruction programs, including infrastructure projects and extensive employment programs in Afghanistan. Among his numerous accolades, he was the recipient of the 2006 Daimler Chrysler Reaching Out Scholarship and was further honored as a Corporate Social Responsibility Scholar by Gap, Inc. His GATC Board focus is on strategic planning /operations management.

Elaine Waxman - Educational Outreach, Editor (part-time volunteer.) Elaine is a researcher and lecturer at The University of Chicago, where she is pursuing a doctoral degree in Social Services Administration. Elaine’s areas of research include low-wage labor markets and economic justice issues. She has been involved in numerous arts-related endeavors in the Chicago area, having served as Chair of the Friends of Gallery 37 and as a Member of the Visiting Committee for Gallery 37 in the Schools. She is a member of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, where she coordinates social justice activities for children and families and is a Member of the congregation's AIDS in Africa Initiative. GATC is privileged to have such a committed activist bring her community outreach, fundraising, visionary brainstorming talent and editorial skills to our literary projects and organization.