Jacqueline Koch Ellenson
Jacqueline Koch Ellenson used her position as director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network to advocate for women’s equality in the profession. Ellenson earned rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1983 and served as chaplain of the Harvard Westlake School in Los Angeles from 1991–2002. In 2003 she began working with the Women’s Rabbinic Network, the organization for women rabbis and rabbinical students in the Reform Movement, and eventually rose to become their director, advocating for equal pay and equal status for women rabbis. She also chaired the board of the Hadassah Foundation from 2006–2010, where she worked to improve the lives of lower-income Israeli women and girls. She became a spiritual director in 2009 and continues to work with seminary students at HUC–JIR. In 2011, the year she was named one of Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s 50 most influential rabbis, she also began teaching adult education at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, where she continues to teach as of 2016.