Meet the Tikkun Ha-Ir Team

Staff Members

A headshot of Sami, a white woman with straight black-brown hair half-up and half-down, wearing a colorful necklace and a black T-shirt, smiling and sitting on a bench outside in front of lush green foliage.

Sami Stein Avner, Executive Director

sami@thi-milwaukee.org | (414) 501-3618

Sami Stein Avner (she/her) is thrilled to take on the role of Executive Director at Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee. She is a native of Mequon, WI and grew up deeply involved in the Jewish community through Milwaukee Jewish Day School, Camp Interlaken JCC and BBYO. After graduating from UW-Madison in 2008, Sami worked at Northwestern University as the Program Manager for the Kellogg Management Education for Jewish Leaders program. She then earned an MBA in Non-profit Management and MA in Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University’s Hornstein Program. While in Boston, Sami was a PresenTense Fellow working to create a young adult Jewish community, as well as a volunteer with the JCRC’s Reach Out! Program. Most recently, Sami lived and worked in Los Angeles running the Diller Teen Fellowship Program, an international program connecting a pluralistic cohort of teens to Tikkun Olam, Jewish Identity, Leadership and Israel. She and her husband and sons are excited to be back in the Midwest and starting this exciting journey with Tikkun Ha-Ir.

Rhonda Lindner, Education Director

rhonda@thi-milwaukee.org | (312) 890-1043

Rhonda Lindner (she/her) began her work as Tikkun Ha-Ir’s Educator in January of 2022.  She concurrently works as the statewide Interfaith Organizer for the WI Interfaith Voter Engagement Campaign (WIVEC), a partner of Tikkun Ha-Ir.  In her time at THI, Rhonda has cultivated relationships with sponsor organizations and partner organizations in the Jewish community, as well as many interfaith and community organizations in the greater Milwaukee area.  She currently serves on committees focussing on voting rights, housing equity, racial justice, Interfaith collaboration, and Jewish engagement.  After 27 years as an English and Spanish teacher in the northern suburbs of Chicago, she says, “her work with Tikkun Ha-Ir and WIVEC is the opportunity of a lifetime, and the fruition of her goals for social justice”.  She currently lives in Grafton with her husband, Rob, and her dog, Joey.  She has two grown children, a daughter in Evanston, IL and a son in Minneapolis, MN.

Amanda McVann, Food Justice Director

amanda@thi-milwaukee.org 

Amanda McVann (she/her) is proudly from Rockland County, New York and currently lives in the Harambee neighborhood of Milwaukee. She has a B.A. in Linguistics and a minor in Korean Studies from SUNY Binghamton, where she served as a campus leader for two multiethnic ministries: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Korean Christian Fellowship. These experiences of meeting students’ spiritual needs motivated her to apply for seminary education. She earned her M.A. in Biblical & Theological Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary as well as her Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. After moving to rural Iowa alongside her husband, Evan, she served as an AmeriCorps service member within refugee and immigrant populations prior to joining the Iowa Migratory Education Program as an Identification Specialist to recruit and enroll families and individuals engaging in agricultural work to receive free educational resources. While in Iowa, she served as treasurer and community educator for the Creston Human Rights Coalition on issues of neighboring, allyship, and racial, socioeconomic, and housing justice. Now, as the Food Justice Director for Tikkun Ha-Ir, she is excited to bring together all her experiences in community uplift, engagement, and education as well as her passion for justice and equity into this new role. She and her husband spend their time discussing theology, playing video games, and being parents to twin toddlers, two dogs, and one cat.

Contact Amanda for Veggie Chop Shop and Gleaning volunteer opportunities and community partnership opportunities!

Board of Directors

  • Morgan Sweet — President
  • Rea Katz — Vice President — Governance
  • Philip Salat— Vice President — External Affairs
  • Betsy Kerns — Vice President — Finance
  • Evan Primakow — Secretary

Members-at-Large

  • Rebecca Chagall
  • Andrew Colegrove
  • Lauren Domski
  • Yonat Piva
  • Rhonda Schutkin
  • Max Seigle
  • Jeffrey Teplin
  • Shai Wise

Ex-Officio

  • Tamara Stolle - Former President
  • Paula Lorant - Former President
  • Rea Katz - Former President
  • Judy Baruch - Founding Executive Director
  • Jill Plavnick - Former Vice President of External Affairs

Leadership Council

  • Linda Bader
  • Brad Denin
  • Robert Ehlrich
  • Susan Ellman
  • Jodie Honigman
  • Mara Kleiman
  • Nikki Levine
  • Philip Salat
  • Sharon Slavin-Brink
  • Rabbi Moishe Steigmann
  • Mary Wurzburg

Sponsor Organizations

Scroll to top