kehillah

Yaron and his family have made Silicon Valley their home, where they are actively involved in the community. Two of his children are proud alumni of The Kehillah School, and for the past few years, he has had the honor of serving on the school board.

Yaron is a tech executive and startup catalyst with broad experience in R&D, engineering, business development, and marketing. He has worked with both startups and large corporations, and currently partners with VCs, startups, and industry leaders to drive innovation and growth.

Originally from Israel, Yaron brings the rich values of history, community, and entrepreneurial spirit from his homeland to his work and community. Inspired by Israel’s sense of innovation, leadership, and deep-rooted connection to the land, he works to foster creativity, collaboration, and leadership through his role on The Kehillah School’s board, as well as in his professional endeavors.

Previously, Yaron served on the Executive Board of the Corporate Affiliates Program at a major UC school, where he supported strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing education and fostering community development. In that role he has also played an active role in supporting a state-level project focused on predicting and preventing national disasters in California and beyond.

Throughout his career, Yaron has volunteered with organizations focused on minority inclusion, kids’ education, and support for children facing health challenges.

Yaron holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from a joint program between Reichman University in Israel and The Wharton School's Executive Education Program.

As a school board member, Yaron is committed to fostering an environment where The Kehillah School continues to be a place where students can thrive academically, feel safe and supported, and grow into the next generation of Jewish leaders, inspired by Israel's deep-rooted values of Jewish history – Justice, Respect, Hope, Derekh Eretz, and the courage to strive for peace.

Bio coming soon.

Justin is CFO of KiwiCo, an educational toy and experience company that provides hands-on projects and activities designed to inspire creativity, curiosity, and learning in STEAM.  Prior to joining KiwiCo, Justin was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where he advised financial institutions and financial technology companies on strategic transactions as well as public and private market capital raising.  Justin earned an AB with honors in Economics and Computer Science from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Justin and his wife Angela live in Menlo Park with their two children, including a 10th grade student at Kehillah.

Matthew Gemello is a corporate partner and the chair of Orrick’s global corporate business. A seasoned lawyer, Matthew guides global technology companies and their financial sponsors through transformational domestic and cross-border transactions. Matthew currently serves as the board chair of Think of Us, a design-thinking lab seeking to transform child welfare through systemic change (Audacious Project grant recipient 2023), and the board vice chair of the Youth Law Center, a San Francisco-based legal advocacy for children in foster care and the juvenile justice system.

Matthew and his wife Moon live in Redwood City and are the proud parents of Delilah (University of Oregon class of 2026) and Bodhi (Kehillah class of 2025). A fourth generation resident of the Peninsula, Matthew is passionate about his family, the outdoors, skiing, mountain biking and other alpine activities. His love of the beautiful game means you can find him up very early in front of the TV on weekends.

Emma Goss is an award-winning reporter on television, online, and in print. She is the creator and host of the podcast, Such a Match!

Goss is a freelance general assignment reporter at NBC Bay Area/Telemundo 48 and a staff writer for J. The Jewish News of Northern California. 

In December 2024 she received five awards from the San Francisco Press Club, recognizing her reporting for both NBC Bay Area and J.

Goss's primary focus over the last two years has been on education reporting across the Bay Area's K-12 schools and college campuses. She's become a trusted resource for educators and families to turn to for news coverage.

Goss grew up in Silicon Valley and attended Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School and Kehillah. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with a B.A. in American Studies and a minor in Art History.

Timonie Hood is a joyful past Kehillah parent whose son graduated in 2022. She loved volunteering with the Kehillah Parent Association, serving as Co-Chair for three years.

Timonie earned her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics (Natural Resources) from Auburn University and her law degree from Arizona State University. She is also a LEED Accredited Professional.

Currently, Timonie works to protect human health and the environment as a Zero Waste and Green Building Coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Office. She is passionate about mentoring and has been recognized as a California Resource Recovery Association Recycler of the Year.

Outside of work, Timonie enjoys exploring caves and tending to her succulent garden.

Jody Kramer is a communications and marketing leader. She began her career in Washington DC as deputy press secretary for a U.S. Senator from NY. After moving to the Bay Area, she joined a leading public relations firm, and provided strategic counsel on media relations, political affairs and crisis management, for clients such as Applied Materials, Cypress Semiconductor, Xerox, Apple Computer, and Second Harvest Food Bank.

From there, Jody was an early hire at Netscape, helping to build one of the first, and best-known Internet brands. After AOL acquired Netscape, Jody went on to lead communications for a host of start-ups as well as major technology companies, passionately crafting narratives regarding corporate visions, engineering genius, customer successes and community involvement.

In addition to her professional pursuits, Jody is passionate about child development. She serves on the boards of Kehillah as well as 4City, a new non-profit dedicated to building connections through youth sports.

Jody graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor of arts in English Literature. Jody has three children, including a recent 2020 graduate of Kehillah who is now attending Dartmouth College.

Jonathan and his wife, Elana, live in Palo Alto. Their daughter is in the class of 2026 at Kehillah and their son is a recent Kehillah graduate.

Jonathan is a lawyer and startup advisor, focusing on technology companies. Previously, he was Associate General Counsel at Google, where he oversaw teams of lawyers who advised on a variety of product and business issues.

Prior to joining Google, he was an attorney at the law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, where he counseled a wide range of technology companies on commercial and technology transactions. Before practicing law, he was a researcher in the physics department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jonathan has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University, a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a law degree from Stanford University.

Andrew Orion is a real estate broker with Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty, the premier brokerage in the San Francisco Bay Area. Andrew's residential real estate practice is centered in Palo Alto, Los Altos, and the Peninsula, and he's been recognized as a top producer at the local, state, and national level. Leveraging his background as an attorney and an ethos focused on research, data, and service that goes above-and-beyond, Andrew's goal is to help his clients mitigate risk and make fully informed decisions about their homes and other real estate investments. His real estate practice can be summarized in one sentence: "It's good to know!"

Andrew's clients include tech-sector executives who favor a data-driven approach, Stanford faculty members who must navigate complex transactions involving ground leases and multiple lenders, move-up buyers who may need help finding bridge financing, and empty-nesters and retirees who may be going through an emotional downsizing process. Andrew uses a highly individualized approach with each client, taking the time to understand their goals, needs, preferences, and risk tolerance. Ultimately Andrew wants to help his clients find not just any home, but the *right* home. And for clients who are ready to sell their home and move on to the next chapter of their lives, Andrew makes it easy: By leveraging Sotheby's reach and marketing machine, and his extensive local network, he can position their home for an optimal sale in terms of price, as well as other goals his clients may have (ROI, speed, certainty, privacy, fit, etc.).

Before his career in real estate, Andrew was an attorney specializing in patent law. His legal positions included partner at Fish & Richardson, in-house counsel at Google, and general counsel at a digital payment startup; he also clerked for Judge Bill Bryson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Andrew earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.S. in computer science from Stanford, and a B.S. from Princeton. In addition to serving on the Kehillah Board, he’s currently on the Board of Directors of a SecureALL (a startup focused on wireless locks and security), and on the Facilities Committee at Keys School.

Andrew and his wife Lori live in Los Altos. They have a son at Kehillah (Class of 2025) and a daughter at Keys School. Andrew loves to hike, play in the mountains, and sail. He and his family enjoy Stanford Sierra Camp at Fallen Leaf Lake every summer. On Friday nights in the spring and summer you’ll likely find Andrew at the helm of his boat, competing in the Friday Night Race Series at South Beach Yacht Club in San Francisco. It’s not SailGP, but it's very competitive and super fun!

Joanna Strober is a technology and finance executive focused on helping companies scale and evaluating new investments. In addition to founding, raising capital for, and running her own successful company, she brings more than 20 years of experience in direct private equity and venture capital investing in digital health and consumer companies. As an advisor to and investor in a number of notable consumer Internet companies that went public, including BlueNile, eToys, Babycenter (as part of eToys), HotJobs and Flycast, Joanna is a seasoned board director whose experience includes membership on BlueNile’s Compensation and Audit Committee.

A former practicing corporate attorney, Joanna is a persuasive advocate with expertise in a variety of corporate transactions, including public offerings and mergers and acquisitions. She has spoken extensively to corporate and graduate school audiences on the topic of women and leadership. 

Joanna is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kurbo Health, the largest global provider of pediatric obesity treatments. The company was acquired by Weight Watchers Reimagined (WW) in 2018, at which time Joanna became the head of the child/teen division of WW. She also currently leads business development efforts for WW Health Solutions to generate relationships with platforms and health insurers. In her present role she regularly presents to the WW Board of Directors. 

Prior to creating Kurbo Health, Joanna spent six years as a Managing Director at Sterling Stamos Capital Management, where she established and managed the firm’s Private Equity and Venture Capital fund of funds and raised over $200 million to invest in buyout funds and venture funds globally. She has also raised and invested capital for private equity and venture funds at Pacific Community Ventures and Symphony Technology Group, as well as at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she was a General Partner and generated gains of over $250 million over a five-year period. 

Joanna is also the co-author of Getting to 50/50, a Random House book that focuses on women and leadership. An experienced public speaker and repeated Guest Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, she has given many talks on this subject to corporations and educational institutions. 

Joanna has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from UCLA Law School, where she served as an Editor of the UCLA Law Review.

Adam lives with his family in Los Altos, where he also attended junior high and high school. His daughter is a student in Kehillah's class of 2027, and his son is in middle school.

Adam is a hands-on engineering leader who has worked with a wide range of technologies, including high-performance microprocessors, mobile apps, web apps, voice-controlled applications, data-driven applications, and artificial intelligence. He has worked at startups, large technology companies, and as a solopreneur. He is an advocate for fostering a culture of empathy, communication, and collaboration to innovate across the needs of diverse stakeholders. Adam is a prolific inventor and holds 26 patents.

Adam previously volunteered as a room parent at his kids' K-8 school and helped with fundraising at Kehillah before joining the board. He is a lifelong learner who is passionate about education and helping others, having returned to his high school as a tutor for students studying math and physics.

Adam enjoys traveling the world with his family. Among other amazing adventures, he spent three months living in Santiago, Chile, where he learned the important differences between Chilean and Peruvian Pisco Sours. He looks forward to having more time to return to playing drums and improving his skills in the sport of recreational lock-picking.

Adam has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (computers) from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Pope specializes in curriculum studies, service learning, student engagement, school reform, and qualitative research methods. She is particularly interested in student voices and the students' perspectives of school. She focuses on academic stress and its consequences for students' mental and physical health, engagement with learning, and integrity. She co-founded Challenge Success to partner with schools and families to implement research-based strategies for student well-being and engagement. She is the author of "Doing School": How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2011), which was awarded the Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal, 2001. She is co-author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids (Wiley, 2015). Dr. Pope co-hosts the podcast "School's In" on Siriux XM radio. 

Jim McManus is the retired Executive Director of the California Association of Independent Schools, where he spent 12 years leading the largest state association of its kind in the nation, encompassing some 230 schools, which enroll more than 90,000 students. He is the former headmaster of Castilleja School in Palo Alto and Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena. His 13 years as a head have been combined with nearly 30 years as a trustee at six different independent schools. He has also served on the Boards of the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the International Council Advancing Independent School Accreditation (ICAISA), and the California Association of Private School Organizations (CAPSO).

From 1993 to 2007 — and again from 2019 to the present — Mr. McManus has maintained a consulting practice that has served more than 175 independent schools and school associations across the country. His chief areas of focus have been strategic planning, Board development, school foundings and mergers, Board and head evaluations, and school climate assessments. He has been a frequent speaker on a variety of issues at professional meetings, including presentations at NAIS conferences, ranging in focus from global trends affecting schools, to the characteristics of baby-boomer parents, to new approaches in assessing social-emotional learning. His publications have covered topics as diverse as rapid transit tunneling, the specious science and racist attitudes that gave birth to the first SAT, and the factors throughout American history that have caused independent schools to perish.

A native Californian, Mr. McManus is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Occidental College. He holds a master’s degree from The Claremont Graduate University, where he also completed his Ph.D. course work, with a special emphasis on the ethical and spiritual dimensions of education. He resides in Sierra Madre, California, and is the father of two children who are independent school graduates — his daughter (who is a Dean of Students and Belonging at an independent school in Los Angeles), and his son (who avidly devotes his energy to mountain entomology, farmers market hip-hop performance dancing, mineral collecting, and blogging on Instagram for his 10,000 followers).