Queens College Hillel announces new executive director
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Queens College Hillel
announced its new executive
director last week, who will
continue to lead the school in
its mission of enriching the
lives of students and the New
York Jewish community.
Jenna Citron, who currently
serves as interim executive
director of Queens College
Hillel, a role she assumed in
August of last year, will begin
her role as executive director
on March 1.
“I am deeply honored to
have the opportunity to lead
Queens College Hillel and build
on the momentum of the past
eight years,” Citron said.
“In collaboration with
students, staff, volunteer
leadership, and supporters, I
look forward to empowering
all 4,000 Jewish students on
campus, no matter their Jewish
background or experiences,
to engage with Jewish life on
campus and around New York
City,” she added.
Citron joined QC Hillel
as director of Jewish student
life in 2012 and was promoted
to assistant director in 2016,
leading a team working to
engage the 4,000 Jewish
students on Queens College’s
mostly commuter campus.
Formerly, she served as
Jewish student life coordinator
at Hillel at Florida State,
where she introduced Hillel’s
relationship-based engagement
strategy and oversaw
student programming.
During her tenure at Queens
College Hillel, Citron has
worked closely with students
to create a welcoming Jewish
community that reflects the
diverse backgrounds and
experiences of Jewish students
at Queens College.
During this time, the
organization has experienced
unprecedented growth,
achieving a fourfold increase
in student engagement in
six years.
Under her leadership,
and that of former executive
director Uri Cohen, Queens
College Hillel received the
Phillip H. and Susan Rudd
Cohen Outstanding Campus
Jenna Citron will begin her role as executive director on March 1.
Award from Hillel International
in 2015, “for engaging a vastly
diverse Jewish student body in
deep, thoughtful and relevant
ways and embodying pluralism
and tolerance in the best
tradition of Hillel.”
In 2018, after being
appointed interim executive
director, Citron received the
Richard M. Joel Exemplar of
Excellence Award from Hillel
International, for “never being
satisfied with the status quo,
and for building a more diverse,
inclusive and engaging Jewish
community on campus.”
“I am so excited to welcome
Jenna to her new position and
pleased that we were able to
find the best candidate for the
position from within our own
Hillel,” said Hillel Wallick,
president of Queens College
Hillel. “We are very proud of
what she has accomplished so
far, and very optimistic about
what she will accomplish
going forward, as we work
toward fulfilling our mission of
benefiting the entire New York
Jewish community by serving
the most diverse Jewish student
community on any North
American college campus.”
Citron earned a bachelor’s
degree in political science from
Florida State University and
a master’s degree in public
administration from the Askew
School of Public Administration
and Policy at Florida State.
She is a graduate of the
Shalom Hartman Institute’s
Fellowship for Campus
Professionals, a former UJAFederation
of New York
Ruskay Fellow, and served as
the 2018 conference chair of
Limmud NY.
She and fiancé Devon make
their home in the Astoria
section of Queens.
The most advanced care in Queens.
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