Karen Elam

Senior Vice President, Jewish Council for Public Affairs

In September 2023, Karen Elam assumed the role of Senior Vice President at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, with responsibility for convening and managing two national coalitions, one on protecting and advancing democracy, and the other on combating all forms of hate, including antisemitism, and extremism.

From 2018 - 2023, Karen Elam served as the founding Executive Director of the Levine Center to End Hate at the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, an initiative founded in the wake of the August 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Levine Center has reached over 4,000 adults and youth through education and dialogue programs addressing racism, antisemitism, transphobia, and other forms of hate.

Karen began her tenure at the Rochester Federation in 2016 as Director of Community Relations. Prior to this, she was the Deputy Director of the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative at United Way, a community-wide coalition working to break the cycle of poverty, and before that, Vice President of Organizational Advancement at Trillium Health, a local LGBTQ+ community health center. Prior to relocating to Rochester, she spent a decade at Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps in New York City working in development and communications.

Karen served as a Peace Corps volunteer and subsequently worked as a cross-cultural trainer in Honduras, Central America in the 1990s. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and completed a Master’s degree in International Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Her greatest pride has been partnering with her husband to see their triplets blossom into thriving young adults.