About Us

Maya Bernstein

Maya is the Director of Education and Leadership Initiatives at Upstart Bay Area, an incubator for Jewish social entrepreneurship. Her expertise includes teaching, curriculum design, and leadership education. She developed a unique approach to using Jewish text study as a tool for negotiating conflicts in schools and organizations. She served as the founding Regional Director of The Curriculum Initiative’s (TCI) New England and Bay Area Regions, supporting ethics and diversity education, and Jewish life, in independent high schools. She began her career in education working with the Jewish community in the Former Soviet Union, has written curriculum for a variety of formal and informal Jewish settings, and is a frequently published author, online and in print, in the field of Jewish innovation and social entrepreneurship.

Maya and her husband have three young children, and she blogs about the joys and challenges of modern motherhood for Lilith magazine.