SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The Contemporary Jewish Museum announces the appointment of Wendy Kesser Yanowitch as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Yanowitch will begin her new role July 1, 2015. She has served on the Board of The CJM for four years and has been its Vice President since 2013.

“With Wendy becoming Board Chair, Executive Director Lori Starr, who, in her first two years, has been setting the stage for The Museum to reach even greater heights, will have an extremely capable partner with the energy, intelligence, creativity, and leadership skills to successfully advance her exciting vision for The CJM,” says outgoing Board Chair Mark Schlesinger who served a successful two-year term after chairing the Search Committee for the new Executive Director. Schlesinger worked with Starr, the staff and the Board to launch a strategic plan that will now take The CJM into its next phase in advancing its mission of making the diversity of Jewish experience relevant for a twenty-first century audience.

Yanowitch is a former Executive Producer of News for KGO-TV in San Francisco. She served as Co-chair of the 2015 Employee of the Year Award Committee for Jewish Vocational Services and is currently a Fellow in the Wexner Heritage Program. Yanowitch has served on the Board of Directors of the Little School, a San Francisco preschool, and as an officer on the Board of the Perlman Music Program, Itzhak Perlman’s training and mentoring program for young musicians of rare and special talent.

Yanowitch grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and was enrolled in the Art History PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children, where they are members of Congregation Emanu-El.

“I am honored and excited to work with Lori and the extraordinarily talented professional team she has assembled, along with my fellow Board members to lead The CJM into its next phase of growth and development,” says Yanowitch. “The Museum is a gem in the cultural life of San Francisco and unique in the world for the imaginative, sophisticated, and accessible way it examines a 5000 year old heritage through the prism of contemporary culture, history, art, and ideas. Having just celebrated our seventh anniversary in our welcoming and engaging building in the Yerba Buena district, we look forward to a lively and engaging period of new exhibitions, public programs, innovative educational initiatives, and digital projects that make a difference in the lives of people from all walks of life.”

“I am so thrilled to be working with Wendy as our new Board Chair,” says Starr. “She brings tremendous knowledge and skill to the role.”