WOW 2023 - Meet the Presenters

Facilitator: Shirli Kirshner

Shirli has a life mission of creating safe spaces for difficult conversations.  She started her career as a corporate lawyer at Allen’s and then Gilbert & Tobin before qualifying as a mediator and starting Resolve Advisors, a professional services firm specialising in dispute resolution and system design. 

She is currently the co-founder and COA of Elker, a digital platform which provides a safe space for people to report  innovation, or issues, and seek support, advice or resolution. It also allows organisations to listen and fix issues early.  Elker seeks to make spaces more inclusive.  

Shirli has held appointments as an Industrial Registrar,  NED of Jewish Care, Shalom institute, and currently IMMAC (the Israel Museum Australian circle).   She is an Adviser to One & All (disability programs with panache) and a full-time working mother.
 

Caroline Lewis

Caroline arrived from London at 22, having married an Aussie boy and found her career in a brand marketing agency, where, as a young director, she juggled the corporate world, mentored women in marketing and raised two wonderful daughters, now 27 & 31. Caroline joined the Board of The Great Synagogue to continue her desire to give back, from 2004-2009 however, she returned ‘home’ to the UK for two years after burning out. Renewed she returned to study counselling and re-joined the Board as Vice President for the next 5 years. Pivoting her career at 52, she life coaches adolescents, helping young people create their personal brand, increase their confidence and find their belonging. In her role at The Great, Caroline developed the WOW program and still attends most Shabbats to offer a warm welcome to members, their guests, visitors and those, like her, looking to find their belonging.

Rachel believes strongly in the concept of “tikkun olam”. This concept has been the focus and at the forefront of her working life during which she has tried to improve lives and do good. She first trained as a nurse and specialised in palliative care. She then became a lawyer who works with disadvantaged people. She is passionate about equality, fairness and social justice.

A lifetime ago she had imagined that she would have at least four children, but life does not always go according to plan. She does not have any children.

When not saving the world her passions are art, reading, bushwalking, knitting and engaging in other creative pursuits and Jewish humour.

Judy Singer

 Judy Singer was born in Hungary and is a second-generation survivor. She is a member of the Inner West Chavurah and has served as a General Franchise Deputy and a member of the Community Relations Committee on the Jewish Board of Deputies. Judy identifies as being in the middle of 3 generations of neurodivergent women, and is internationally recognised for coining the term Neurodiversity in the 1990s to name the rising civil rights movement of people with conditions like Autism, ADHD, the “Dys”es, etc.

Kirsten Shteinman (McKenzie)

Kirsten grew up in the country town of Devonport, Tasmania.  Three weeks after finishing school, at the age of 18, she left Australia for 2 years of solo backpacking in New Zealand, Europe and Israel.  Returning to Australia to continue her studies, she lived and studied in Hobart, Perth and finally Sydney where, apart from another 3 years in Israel, she has resided ever since.  

It was while studying for her PhD (Molecular Biology) at Sydney University that Kirsten converted to and subsequently met her future husband and married at The Great Synagogue.  She currently works part time for Weizmann Australia (Australian arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel) and teaches Iyengar yoga.  She has 3 adult children, Eva, aged 28, and Hannah and Zev, aged 22.