Executive Director at Brown RISD Hillel Providence, Rhode

Executive Director Brown RISD Hillel Background

Brown RISD Hillel (BRH) is more essential to thriving Jewish life on College Hill than ever before:
Jewish faith and community are not only essential to Jewish students at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), but also a force for good at the universities. Jewish texts teach gratitude, patience, personal connection, purpose with humility, and the dignity of the individual. Brown RISD Hillel is a center of gravity on the two campuses and is helping define the fabric of the new Jewish America: it is one of the most exciting and innovative campus Hillels in the United States.

It is a place of rich community, deep meaning, intellectual rigor, and spiritual resilience. It brings students together for Shabbat dinner, ensures a daily minyan, provides religious education, sustains Jewish traditions in the arts, and connects students with alumni mentors.

BRH works with an exceptionally engaged and curious student community, drawn from the most creative Ivy League university and the foremost art and design college in the country. Our students approach Judaism and the world with intellectual inquiry, imagination, and depth.

Close to 1,000 Jewish students (and hundreds of non‑Jewish students) walk through the doors of the Hillel building each semester. Jewish students know they can go to the BRH building to be with other Jews, and students of every faith and background can convene at BRH in fellowship. BRH has intimate relationships with the Brown University administration, the RISD administration, and with Chabad of College Hill that allow it to better support a diversity of Jewish student life on the Brown and RISD campuses.

BRH is already a welcoming, bustling hive of activity staffed by a talented group of religious, programmatic, and engagement professionals. The next Executive Director will build on this foundation of success, bringing strategic focus, coordination, financial acumen, and momentum to a strong organization.

The new ED will be charged with leading and collaborating with staff to expand the reach and impact of BRH’s work: offering more pastoral care to young men and women seeking to make sense of their world, engaging more deeply with alumni mentors, broadening the arts program to include theater and music, developing innovative ways to deliver religious education, and exploring the potential of AI tools for the study of Jewish texts.

This is an opportunity for a seasoned executive leader to align the many aspects of BRH’s work into a clear and coherent whole. By setting priorities, supporting talented staff, and connecting the organization’s efforts across campuses, the Executive Director will help ensure that Hillel is central to the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual life of students. More than anything, the new ED will provide the strategic, financial, structural, and human resources support to ensure excellent program delivery and student experience across all dimensions.

The incoming Executive Director will provide executive leadership and strategic management to a team of talented religious, program, and engagement experts, aligning their work to build on the already vibrant Jewish life that exists on the Brown and RISD campuses.

• Collaborate with the board to create a culture of excellence in governing BRH
• Work with the team to develop and execute plans to enhance Jewish life on College Hill through religious services, religious education, visual arts, performing arts, alumni engagement, career mentoring, faculty engagement, travel and social programming
• Engage with and inspire a broad range of engaged Brown and RISD students
• Help recruit diverse, intellectually-oriented, Jewishly‑engaged students to campus
• Lead a $2M Annual Campaign and $15M Capital Campaign
• Ensure successful completion of $7M building renovation
• Inspire, oversee and performance manage a 12 person staff
• Develop and manage a $2.2M annual budget

• Provide strong executive leadership for a talented team of religious, program, and engagement staff, ensuring that BRH’s work is coordinated, strategic, and aligned with its…