Shelly Mitchell
Board Member
Shelly Mitchell lives in Manhattan with her husband, Neil, and their 3 children. Erica, their oldest child, participated in the Yahel Program in Gedera in 2013.
Shelly serves on the Board of Central Synagogue, a large Reform Congregation in NYC. She heads a Social Justice Initiative that the Synagogue does with the Educational Alliance on the Lower East Side. Central Synagogue sends volunteers to a Head Start Program twice a month to work with children in an underserved school. She also serves on the Board and Grants Committee of The Jewish Women's Foundation of New York, which awards grants to programs that help Jewish women and girls in Israel and the New York Metropolitan Area.
Shelly and Neil sponsor 1st and 2nd Graders through the I Have A Dream Foundation in East Harlem, New York. The aim is to motivate children from low - income neighborhoods to reach their education and career goals by providing mentoring, tutoring, and tuition assistance for higher education.
In her spare time, Shelly enjoys reading, going to the theater, and collecting contemporary art.
Abravanel and her husband lived for more than 30 years in Portland, Oregon, where she worked as Education Director within several nonprofit community-based organizations and developed a nationally-recognized service-learning program. She was recruited to DC in 2009 as Vice-President of Education at Youth Service America.
A long-time participant within the Jewish community, Abravanel has served on a number of professional and community boards and advisory councils. She served as the professional director of the American Jewish Committee in Portland, later becoming a lay leader and president of AJC’s Portland Chapter. She was also the Portland Federation’s JCRC Chair. Nationally, Abravanel has been a Vice-Chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and a member of the AJC Board of Governors for ten years, leading its Engaging America and Advocacy Task Forces. She is currently a member of AJC’s Washington Regional Office Board of Directors.