Our Board of Directors
Founding Members
Dr. Deborah Fripp
Board Chair
A professional educator, Yad Vashem trained Holocaust educator, and a storyteller, Deborah is the author of five books including Light from the Darkness: A ritual for Holocaust remembrance.
Now based in Singapore, Deborah holds a PhD from MIT in communication and learning in formal and informal settings.
Violet Neff-Helms
Known as Tante by the many kindergarten children she taught for fourteen years at Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound, Texas, Violet is an experienced storyteller, a Yad Vashem-trained educator, and the co-author of Light from the Darkness: A ritual for Holocaust remembrance.
Violet is based in North-East Texas.
Dr. Michael Fripp
An experienced storyteller and educator, Michael is a Schultz Israel Fellow and a former member of the board of directors at Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound, Texas.
Now based in Singapore, Michael is the author of five books and over 500 patents. He holds a PhD from MIT.
Members
Dr. Mehak Burza
In addition to being a Teach the Shoah storyteller, Mehak is the Program Coordinator for Online Global Initiatives at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, and a pioneer in Holocaust education in India.
Paul Dietz
Paul recently retired as Senior Advisor for US and Asia Operations for a global corporation. He has extensive experience in international sales and marketing.
Mitchell Gordon
In addition to being a storyteller, facilitator, educator, mediator, and master drummer, among many other talents, Mitch has extensive experience with nonprofit management.
Erica Guerra
Erica comes to Teach the Shoah with over 25 years of marketing, branding, and communications leadership and management experience serving organizations as well known as IBM and Adobe to grassroots non-profits with nothing to their name but a web domain.
Dr. Alisha Wimbush
Alisha is the Program Director for Religious Leaders at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. She comes to Teach the Shoah with a deep understanding of interfaith relations as well as a background in trauma counseling.
Tanya Wisoker
In addition to being a Teach the Shoah storyteller, instructor, and facilitator, Tanya is a teacher and Jewish educator, with a background in evaluating educational programming.