General New Faces at JELF (8/1/19)

Thanks to The Jewish Georgian for their write up on three new staff members at JELF!

Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF) recently added several new staff members to help the organization ensure that as many Jewish students as possible learn about how to receive interest-free, last dollar loans to fulfill their educational goals. In 2018, as the cost of a higher education continued to rapidly outpace inflation, JELF assisted 279 students from its five-state region (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, excluding metro DC) with a total of $1,011,266. JELF has had a 99% student loan repayment rate for more than 10 years, which allows even more students to save on the interest they’d otherwise accrue with a private student loan. The new hires include:

Sandra Bass

Sandra Bass, loan program manager, joined JELF in April, replacing Suzan Saidman, who will retire later this year. Sandra has worked in the Atlanta Jewish community for more than 20 years, more recently serving as the director of Arts and Culture at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA). Prior to her time at MJCCA, Sandra was the longtime executive director of Camp Judaea. As part of her role, Sandra will help usher students through the application process and work with JELF’s network of local administrators throughout the region.

Jody Vane

Jody Vane, executive assistant, comes to JELF after a long career as a nanny, with additional experience in customer service and marketing, as well as serving on multiple boards in the community. She will assist JELF’s CEO and staff as the organization grows.

JELF CEO Jenna Leopold Shulman says, “This is an exciting period of growth for JELF. Our incredible staff are all very passionate about JELF’s mission and we feel very fortunate to now have the people we need to service more of our community’s need.”