Julie Kaufman is the Executive Director for the Project Elijah Foundation. Prior to becoming Director, Julie worked for the foundation as the Director of Elijah’s Kosher Manna, the hunger relief program of the Project Elijah Foundation. Born in Boone, N.C., Julie has had a lifelong commitment to bettering the lives of those in need.

After studying Exercise Physiology and Nutrition at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro (BS 1992), she continued helping others by working in the fields of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation and medical research. Since coming to Des Moines in 2003, Julie has been involved with the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines. Dedicated to Klal Yisrael, she directed the Federation’s Jewish Learning Institute in 2007-2008 which involves Jews from all denominations learning together.

She also served the Jewish Federation as the Director of Programming for The Caspe Terrace until September 2008. The Caspe Terrace is the Federation’s center for community programming. While she no longer works for the Jewish Federation, she is still an active member and benefactor of the organization. Serving in a number of capacities including co-chairing the Student Activities Committee at The Academy, her children’s school, Julie is well versed in making activities fun and educational for children as well as adults. A mother of three young children, Julie is married to Rabbi David Kaufman of Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Active in the Iowa Jewish community since 1957, Alan Zuckert has participated in a number of wide-ranging civic and community activities.

Mr. Zuckert was on the Mercy Hospital Medical Center Board for some ten years, a charter member of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Iowa Board of Trustees, a member of the West Des Moines State Bank Board for 33 years, a member of the State of Iowa Banking Board, and a past president of Tifereth Israel Synagogue.

After retiring from a career in consumer finance, the plight of children in need became his focus.

During a trip to Buenos Aires to interview families who wanted to leave the country for a better life and future in America, he heard about, and saw the effects of hunger on impoverished children and the dim future in store for them.

This discovery became a call to action. These children needed to be saved. As part of that process, the Project Elijah Foundation was established.

The Project Elijah Foundation, in addition to providing food, is also giving American youth an understanding and opportunity to become philanthropists through their own social action activities.

Former Iowa Governor Terry E. Branstad has a long history of public service and an unwavering commitment to education.

During his tenure as the state’s longest-serving governor, one of Governor Branstad’s top priorities was to prepare Iowa’s schools and classrooms for the 21st century. Reflecting his belief that a highly educated workforce is one of the keys to success in the future, he paved the way for the first statewide fiber-optics communications network in the nation, which brought distance learning to both urban and rural schools in Iowa.

On a national level, Governor Branstad served as chairman of the Education Commission of the United States from 1997-1998. More recently, President George W. Bush appointed him to chair the President’s Commission for Excellence in Special Education – charged with developing a plan to improve the educational performance of students with disabilities. After completing his work with the commission last year, Governor Branstad was asked to serve as member of the National Advisory Council for Positive Action for Teen Health, or PATH – encouraging action toward detecting adolescent mental illness and teen suicide.

In his role as the 14th President of Des Moines University, Governor Terry Branstad continued to build upon his legacy of commitment to education, while advocating the need for improved health care for all Iowans.  Terry Brandstad is once again running for Governor of the State of Iowa.

Bonnie J. Campbell served with distinction from 1990 through 1994 as Iowa Attorney General and then joined the Clinton Administration as one of its key officials on crime and gender-equity issues. Campbell’s effectiveness led Time magazine in 1997 to name her one of the 25 most influential people in America.

In 1996, Campbell was chosen to serve on the President’s Interagency Council on Women, chaired by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. She also headed the Justice Department’s Working Group on Trafficking and was instrumental in the creation of a U.S. treaty with Italy on ending trafficking in women and girls. She subsequently was appointed by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to represent the United States in international negotiations on the creation of an International Criminal Court. She was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and has been a leading spokesperson on international human rights issues ever since.

As Iowa’s Attorney General, she strengthened the state’s domestic violence laws, increased funding for victim compensation programs and shelters, and wrote what became a model statute on anti-stalking for states around the country.

Originally from Upstate New York, Campbell earned her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, and law degree from Drake University.  

Dr. Schneider, an active internal medicine practitioner for the Iowa Clinic, treats his patients as though they were members of his own family.

Having cared for victims of domestic violence, Dr. Schneider knows first hand, how vulnerable and dependent they are on help and charity from strangers. He understands the value of Project Elijah Foundation’s work.