Leadership Team
Professional Staff
Rabbi Sandra Lawson (she/her/hers), Executive Director
Sandra Lawson is a nationally recognized leader, visionary strategist, and community builder working at the intersection of Judaism, justice, and community transformation. As the Executive Director of Carolina Jews for Justice (CJJ), she brings her passion for equity, her commitment to grassroots organizing, and her visionary leadership to Jewish communities across North Carolina.
A veteran of the U.S. Army, sociologist, and rabbi, Sandra has spent her career lifting up marginalized voices, building bridges across differences, and helping communities live out their deepest values. She previously served as the inaugural Director of Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism and was named one of the Forward 50, and one of the 22 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress.
Under her leadership, CJJ is expanding its reach and deepening its impact in North Carolina.
Sandra holds a graduate degree in Sociology from Clark Atlanta University, a Master of Hebrew Letters (MHL), rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School, focused on strategies for organizational success.
Sandra can be reached at: [email protected].
Lisa Forehand (she/her/hers), Western NC Organizer
Lisa Forehand is CJJ’s Western North Carolina Organizer, based in Asheville. An Interfaith Minister raised in a culturally Jewish household, Lisa brings a deep commitment to justice, spiritual exploration, and community building. She worked for more than a decade at The Community Foundation of WNC, where she helped launch initiatives such as Hispanics in Philanthropy and Women for Women, a women’s giving circle.
Lisa has served as Executive Director of an English as a Second Language school, Spiritual Care Provider with the American Red Cross, and holds a master’s degree in Intercultural Administration and Training. She has lived and worked abroad in more than eight countries, visiting more than fifty.
With a passion for relationship-building and nonprofit sustainability, Lisa is a seasoned facilitator who brings warmth and wisdom to every space she enters. She, her husband (a native North Carolinian), their two children, and two dogs have called Asheville home since 1999.
Lisa can be reached at: [email protected].
Mark Bochkis (he/him/his), Communications Director/Triad Community Organizer
Mark brings together expertise in strategic messaging and grassroots mobilization. His activism is grounded in his personal immigration story and the Jewish value of tikkun olam (repairing the world). After arriving in North Carolina with his family in 1991, thanks to the Greensboro Jewish community's resettlement efforts, Mark earned a B.A. in Communications from the University of Maryland and built a diverse career spanning agency copywriting, content strategy, and nonprofit communications.
In his dual role, Mark combines digital storytelling and campaign messaging with on-the-ground community organizing throughout the Triad region. He has helped organizations across healthcare, education, and social justice sectors amplify their voices, build meaningful connections with their audiences, and mobilize communities for collective action. Mark's work bridges traditional media relations with innovative digital strategies and grassroots organizing, always with an eye toward advancing equity and justice. His approach is deeply informed by his understanding of how powerful storytelling and authentic community engagement can drive social change and build the coalitions necessary for lasting impact.
Mark lives in High Point with his daughters, Mia and Emma, and their energetic pup, Bodie.
Mark can be reached at: [email protected].
Board of Directors
Carolina Jews for Justice is currently led by a volunteer Board of Directors from Jewish communities across North Carolina. CJJ chapters are led by volunteer chairs of local steering committees.
Rochelle Sparko, Board Co-Chair
Rochelle (she/her/hers) grew up in western Massachusetts where she was an active member of her synagogue and USY. She received undergraduate degrees from Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary and spent her junior year abroad at Hebrew University. After three years in Washington, DC, where Rochelle attended law school, she moved to Hawaii. Rochelle practiced law at the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii and taught the b’nai mitzvah class at a Honolulu synagogue. Since moving to Durham in 2008, Rochelle had a five year stint practicing law at the NC Justice Center, and then served as the policy director for a sustainable agriculture non-profit from 2013-2019. Now she serves as the Director of NC Policy at the Center for Responsible Lending. She’s been missing Jewish community life, and looks forward to working hard with CJJ to advance her social justice values in the context of her Jewish identify.
Cheryl Lester, Board Co-Chair
Growing up in northwest Detroit in the 1950s-60s, Cheryl (she/they) was nourished by the Jewish community until it shamefully fled to the suburbs. The enduring impact of her experience in Detroit is visible in her career on the faculty of the University of Kansas, where she taught and published on race and ethnicity in US literature and culture from Jim Crow to Civil Rights. She was an active member of professional and community boards, including the small but vibrant Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation in Kansas. She and her spouse Philip Barnard moved to Durham in June 2021, where they joined their daughter Julia, daughter-in-law Jordan, and soon-to-be-born grandson Simon. Joining the communities of CJJ, Judea Reform Congregation, and Beth El Synagogue has been a source of strength, joy, and connection.
Herb Baum, PhD, Board Treasurer
Herb and his wife moved to Greensboro nine years ago from the Washington, DC area where he worked for various companies as a program evaluator for federal, state, and local programs. Herb teaches statistics at Guilford College, consults to a local community-based organization on strategic planning, works for a colleague on valuing the services provided by human-service organizations, and will travel for a good pastrami sandwich.
Herb has two daughters and two grandchildren in the Washington, DC area, and belongs to Beth David Synagogue in Greensboro. He serves on the Steering Committee of the CJJ-Triad chapter.
Milan Pham, Board Member
Milan (she/her/hers) lives in Hillsborough with her spouse and their many animal family members. She is a partner in her firm and concentrates her practice on queer family creation via adoption and assisted reproduction law otherwise known as subverting the cis/het/erosexist paradigm. She serves on the boards of Equality NC, The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and GoldenGirlz, NC. She has been a member of Judea Reform Synagogue and served on the Social Justice Committee there. She's excited to lend her passions and knowledge to CJJ and to be in j/Jewish community.
Rabbi Geoffrey Claussen, Board Member
Geoff (he/him/his) lives in Greensboro with his wife, Jessica, his daughters, Eliana and Talya, and his dog, Sami. He is a professor of Jewish Studies and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Elon University, and is the author of books including Jewish Ethics: The Basics; Modern Musar: Contested Virtues in Jewish Thought; and Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simhah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar.
CJJ Staff Graduates
Abby Lublin, Former Executive Director (January 2022 - May 2025)
Alanna Davis, Former Statewide Organizer
Sarah Cohen Domont, Former Deputy Director
Brandon Mond, Former Statewide Organizer
Cole Parke-West, Former Statewide Organizer
Rabbi Salem Pearce, Former Executive Director
Anna Grant, Former Statewide Organizer
Former Board Members
Dove Kent, Ron Katz, Emma Cohn, Max Parish, Frank Goldsmith, Rabbi Dusty Klass, Judy Leavitt, Brandon Mond, Julia Barnard, Ray Katz, Meredith Cohen, Debbie Goldstein, Jack Holtzman
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