Lisa has over twenty years in sales and marketing experience for leading Bay Area publishing and Internet companies. Prior to coming to Tawonga, she was Associate Director of Teens Turning Green, helping build a nationally recognized youth movement through managing programs, business development and fundraising, and promoting sustainability. Lisa volunteers on the executive board for the Women’s Philanthropy division of the SF Jewish Community Federation and is a member and former board president of the religious school at Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael. Melding her love of working with teens, environmental advocacy, and Jewish education, Lisa now feels incredibly fortunate to work for Camp Tawonga, where all of her interests intersect. She lives in Marin with her husband Matthew and has two grown children. She loves the outdoors and enjoys spending as much time at Camp as possible. Mostly, she loves getting to know this incredible community and calling herself a Tawongan!
Rona grew up in New England and spent four summers on the waterfront staff of Camp Ramah in Palmer. After college, she lived on a kibbutz in Israel for several years and outside Boston before finally making the move to the Bay Area. She has worked in ergonomics as well as in the Jewish community at Berkeley Hillel and most recently at the Jewish Federation of the East Bay. Rona lives in Berkeley, where she is an active member of Congregation Beth Israel, a vibrant modern orthodox community. In her free time, she can be found reading multiple books at one time or knitting. She is a graduate of Yale University and the proud mother of an aspiring writer. She is delighted to join the awesome team at Camp Tawonga!
Lori joined the Tawonga community when her kids, Maggie and Andy Polachek, became campers many moons ago. She went on to serve as a Tawonga board member from 2005-2011.
Lori launched her career at CBS News in New York, where she wrote and produced breaking news and special reports. Later at KPIX in San Francisco, she was the Executive Producer of Special News Projects, producing Emmy-winning investigative series and enterprise stories. Lori also taught broadcast news at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
More recently, at PRN (a former division of Technicolor), Lori led content creation and video production for scaled retail networks. In this role, she managed production teams and developed in-store B2C video marketing campaigns for major retailers and brands, including Costco, Target, Unilever, Disney and American Express. While at PRN, Lori also directed corporate marketing and spearheaded a women’s leadership initiative.
Lori holds an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. from UC Berkeley.
Ash has called the Bay Area home since 2005 and comes to Tawonga with a background in working for local nonprofits. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where she received a B.S. in Environmental Science, Policy & Management from the College of Natural Resources and played for the university’s field hockey team (Go Bears!). After college, Ashley dabbled in environmental restoration, administration at the Downtown Oakland YMCA and as a peer provider at Mental Health Association of San Francisco. Ashley’s passion for the outdoors grew as manager of gear libraries and operations at Bay Area Wilderness Training, a nonprofit creating equitable access to the outdoors for youth of color and low-income youth. She also spent a year as a union carpenter. In her free time, Ashley plays in rec sports leagues, backpacks as often as possible and hikes/bikes/runs around the East Bay hills.
With over 15 years of experience crafting strategic communications for nonprofits, Casey loves helping individuals and organizations tell their stories. At Tawonga, Casey has created the organization’s award winning impact report, led a website and video rebranding and created the agency’s first style guide. Casey has also helped place stories about Tawonga in dozens of publications, including The New York Times.
Casey earned a Masters in Public Administration with a focus in nonprofit management from USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy and a B.A. in history from Claremont McKenna College. She has also led programmatic and communications work at the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council. Casey lives in Lafayette with her husband and fellow Tawongan, Matt, and their daughters, Sadie and Maya. When the pandemic is over, Casey will be heading to the nearest karaoke spot and for now enjoys serenading her family with songs from the Tawonga songbook.
Born and raised in Smithtown, NY, Mollie is thrilled to join the year-round Tawonga team! She has spent her career in various development and communication-related roles at the Jewish Federation of the East Bay, Ma’ase Olam and Avodah, where she also served as a corps member. Mollie earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Jewish studies from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in non-profit management from Hebrew University. Growing up, she attended Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, and today loves exploring her newfound home in the Bay. Mollie lives in Albany with her husband, Gil, and their children Liam, Eve and Sky.