2025 Gala Honoree Committee

Rabbi Kenneth Chasen, T’ruah board member

Rabbi Kenneth Chasen is Senior Rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles. In addition to his activism in support of immigrant rights, affordable housing, and environmental sustainability, he has assumed a prominent role in promoting Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Rabbi Chasen is the co-author of two books which guide Jewish families in the creation of meaningful Jewish rituals in the home. In addition, he serves on the adjunct faculty of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and he is a nationally recognized composer whose original liturgical and educational works are regularly heard in synagogues, religious schools, Jewish camps and sanctuaries across North America and in Israel. Rabbi Chasen is married to Allison Lee, the Managing Director of PEN America in Los Angeles, and they are the proud parents of Micah, Ben, and Eliana.

Rabbi Nancy Kasten, T’ruah board member

Rabbi Nancy Kasten is a Reform rabbi, a community educator, volunteer, and activist, as well as a certified Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher. Since moving to Dallas in 1990, Nancy has led, taught, consulted, and organized in Jewish, interfaith, and secular settings locally, nationally, and internationally. She chose her title of Chief Relationship Officer when she joined Faith Commons because she has the most fun when making connections with and among others. Nancy currently serves on the Board of the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at UTD and the U.S. Advisory Committee for Polyphony, a Nazareth-based organization that connects Arab and Jewish communities in Israel through music. She is a member of Reform Judaism’s Commission on Social Action and serves on several national and state-based committees and core teams within the Reform Movement. Reinforced and informed by her participation in the 2020 OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship, Nancy strives to provide thought leadership in influential forums through her words as well as her deeds. Nancy is married to Rabbi David Stern, and they have three adult children.

Rabbi Esther L. Lederman, T’ruah board member

Rabbi Esther L. Lederman serves as Vice President of Leaders in Action. Prior to that role, she was the Director of Congregational Innovation & Leadership at the Union for Reform Judaism and, before that, Associate Rabbi at Temple Micah in Washington, DC.  She was ordained in May 2008 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.  She received her B.A. in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from McGill University in 1996. Rabbi Lederman sits on several boards in addition to T’ruah: the Habonim Dror Foundation and Ameinu, as well as the board of the Federation of Greater Washington. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and two children.

Rabbi Shira Stutman, 2022 Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award

Rabbi Shira Stutman is a nationally known faith-based leader and change-maker with more than twenty years of experience motivating and inspiring groups large and small, most recently as the founding rabbi of Sixth & I in Washington DC. She teaches Torah and speaks nationally on topics including growing welcoming Jewish spiritual communities; building the connective tissues between different types of people; and the current American Jewish community zeitgeist. She currently is working on a variety of projects including writing a book on the blessing of interfaith couples; starting a new minyan in Aspen, Colorado; and helping synagogue communities have less reactive and more heart-centered conversations about Israel. In January, she and the actor Joshua Malina launched the PRX podcast “Chutzpod,” which aims to provide Jewish answers to life’s contemporary questions and help listeners build lives of meaning. She was named one of “America’s Most Inspiring Rabbis” by The Jewish Forward, among other awards. Rabbi Stutman graduated from Columbia University and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.

Rabbi Kelly Whitehead, T’ruah board member

Rabbi Kelly Whitehead (she/they) is the Assistant Director of Engagement and Learning at the Union for Reform Judaism. She was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (’24), where she received her MA in Hebrew Literature and her M.A. in Jewish Nonprofit Management. Kelly is the creator and lead organizer of NFTY’s Teen Jew of Color Fellowship. She participated in the Reform Movement’s JewV’Nation Jews of Color Fellowship, where she learned to create and facilitate Anti-Racial Bias trainings for Jewish Professionals. Kelly serves on the board of T’ruah and was selected as one of The NY Jewish Week’s 36 under 36 for 2021.