Sister Rose Thering Fund Welcomes Two Members to Board

The Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies (SRTF) is pleased to announce the election of two new members to its board of trustees: James M. Gurland, J.D. and Lisa Capone Steiger.

James M. Gurland is the director of advancement at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), New York, where he is responsible for expanding HUC-JIR's donor base in the tri-state region. In this role, he oversees donor prospect management and implements cultivation and stewardship strategies for new and existing donors, identifying and engaging individual contributors who support HUC-JIR. Before joining HUC-JIR in 2023, Gurland served in high-level fundraising and development positions, including chief philanthropy officer at the American Committee for the Tel Aviv Foundation (New York), chief development officer at the Kean University Foundation (Union, New Jersey), national director of the Jerusalem Foundation (New York) and executive director of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science (Fairfield, New Jersey).

"Having just celebrated our 30th anniversary year, the Sister Rose Thering Fund is poised to begin our next decade with renewed energy and commitment," said executive director of the SRTF Anthony C. Sciglitano. "James Gurland personifies both that energy and commitment, and we enthusiastically welcome him to our board. We look forward to his input and participation in the many endeavors undertaken by our trustees and supporters."

Reflecting on his new role, Gurland shared, "My interest in the Sister Rose Thering Fund is based on the alignment of my personal family history with the Fund's mission. It will be a privilege for me to work towards advancing Sister Rose's legacy, and I'm eager to use my professional experience in building philanthropic support for the Sister Rose Thering Fund."

"On a personal level, my involvement will always reflect my late maternal grandfather's arrest during the November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany and his subsequent imprisonment in Buchenwald. My family and I are forever indebted to my grandfather's sister-in-law, a Christian woman married to my grandfather's brother, whose heroic efforts, love and compassion for the Jewish people allowed my family to escape what would have been years of horrific hardship and possibly death. I need to ensure that such understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christians and people of other religious traditions be preserved, strengthened and passed on to future generations," added Gurland.

An alumnus of Seton Hall University's School of Law, Newark, Gurland received his undergraduate degree in history from Dickinson College. He has served as president of the Daughters of Israel board of governors, as well as on the board of the Gift Planning Council of New Jersey.

Additionally, Lisa Capone Steiger will serve on the Fund's board of trustees for a three-year term. Steiger is the assistant superintendent of schools for equity, inclusion, intervention and inspiration for the Livingston, New Jersey, public school system. She has held various positions with the school district since 2000, including learning disability teacher/consultant, director of Summer Project and pre-K through grade 12 supervisor of student services. Steiger was principal of Livingston's Burnet Hill elementary school from 2010 to 2015, when she was promoted to assistant superintendent of student services. In 2017, she became assistant superintendent, a position she held until 2021, when she was named to her current post.

"Lisa's professional experience, along with her commitment to social justice, are ideal assets to our mission and vision," said Sciglitano. "We look forward to working together as the Sister Rose Thering Fund enters its 2024-25 program year."

Steiger expressed her enthusiasm about joining the board and her respect for Sister Rose's impactful work. "Having spent my adult life working to create spaces where humans from all walks of life know they belong, I'm in awe of the work accomplished by both Sister Rose and the Fund named for her. It is an honor to now be a part of an organization that has such an impact on social justice and interreligious understanding," said Steiger.

"As a grandmother of a little girl who is the descendant of two Holocaust survivors, as well as being both Catholic and Jewish, I'm pleased to have an opportunity to work closely with my fellow trustees to ensure that Sister Rose's mission will live on with the next generations. My late father was a proud graduate of Seton Hall. He would be thrilled to know that I'm now involved with so meaningful a board that has deep roots with his alma mater," Steiger added.

A former adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey, where she taught Leadership for Social Justice, Steiger has also taught in the post-graduate teacher certification program for special education at Bloomfield College (now Bloomfield College of Montclair State University). She received her bachelor's degree from Montclair State University and holds two master's degrees, one each from Montclair State and Caldwell College, respectively.

Steiger is also affiliated with the New Jersey Association of Principals and Supervisors, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, among other professional associations.

About the Sister Rose Thering Fund

Founded in 1993, the Sister Rose Thering Fund provides full tuition scholarships to teachers in the tri-state area who matriculate in Seton Hall University's graduate program in Jewish-Christian Studies. The Fund has awarded scholarship aid to more than 400 public, private and religious schoolteachers, enabling hundreds of thousands of elementary, middle and high school students in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania to learn the lessons of how religious intolerance and bigotry can lead to the tragedies of the Holocaust and other genocides. The mission of the Fund is to advance Sister Rose Thering's legacy by fostering understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christians and people of other religious traditions through advocacy and education.

Categories: Faith and Service