Biography
Ilana Bauman is a passionate educator and community builder who teaches high school Sciences and Judaics, runs the Israel gap-year guidance program, and is the Student Activities Coordinator at Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut Upper School. She spent many years working for NCSY and has led numerous trips to Israel for diverse groups through Birthright, NCSY, and OU-JLIC. She has participated in various Torah and Jewish education fellowships, including the Prizmah Rising Orthodox Female Educational Leaders Fellowship. Ilana earned a B.S. in Biology and NEJS (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies) from Brandeis University, where she served in multiple leadership roles within the campus Jewish community, including Hillel President. She also spent two months studying healthcare in Madagascar. Prior to attending university, Ilana studied at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim (MMY) in Jerusalem. She has always been an active member of her Jewish community, both in her hometown of Silver Spring, MD and now in the Upper West Side in NYC, and is frequently invited to give shiurim and divrei Torah in her community. Ilana was part of the inaugural OU Women’s Initiative Lay Leadership Summit as well as the Art of Speaking Fellowship and is excited to learn and share Torah through the Counting Toward Sinai initiative again this year.