Emily Stern grew up in Owings Mills a short drive from the JCC of Greater Baltimore. Stern grew up attending JCC programs and camps and served as a camp counselor at 16. Then, she went off to college and came right back after graduation to serve as an early childhood education administrative assistant at the JCC.
Now, Stern has spent the last 18 years working for the organization. She was promoted to chief program officer in 2022, a position she holds today.
Stern oversees the JCC’s Center for Youth and Families, helping make the J experience as important to the next generation as it was to her.
Stern lives in Eldersburg with her husband and two young kids.
What’s your Baltimore and JCC background?
I am someone who grew up in the Baltimore area, in Owings Mills, right around the corner from the JCC. And so I’m very connected to the community in Baltimore and Jewish Baltimore and have felt that way my entire life. I’ve been a member of the JCC community since I was five years old, and when I had the opportunity to work here, when I was around 16 as a camp counselor, I jumped on that opportunity.
I started my career here in our Early Childhood Center and have held positions here within the department. I was camp director for seven years and now have the wonderful opportunity to oversee those areas as our chief program officer. I have always, like I mentioned, felt really connected to the Jewish community, specifically at the JCC, and opportunities that I’ve had to watch kids grow in the programs that I’ve run myself [is amazing].
I now get to watch my own children in those programs. It’s been wonderful now, almost full circle, getting to watch my own kids in [the JCC] and still getting to be a great part of creating what that experience looks like.
How did your early connection to the JCC influence where you ended up?
The J was always a part of our daily lives in some way or another. My mom worked here when I was younger. She was the marketing director here when I was in elementary school, and I have a brother and sister who also were engaged in programs. I was a Maccabi participant.
I really spent a lot of wonderful years in our camping program and fell in love with day camping and getting to experience the relationships that you form when you’re a part of a Jewish day camp. I fell in love with the Early Childhood Center [during my time at the JCC] and the relationships I got to make with young kids. When I’ve had opportunities to work here and continue to stay here, it almost was like, well, where else would I be?
What does your day-to-day look like as CPO?
I oversee our Center for Youth and Families, which includes our J Baby department, Early Childhood, J camps, J kids, middle school and teens. Day to day, I get to supervise and really envision what at the JCC we should be offering for young children and their families within the areas that I directly supervise.
We’re always thinking about, how do we want to help our community connect at those times in their lives and be a place where their kids want to spend their time and have fun and feel safe, but also be able to feel like they’re a part of a Jewish community?
What has kept you at the JCC for 18 years?
I see our community as my community, and I’ve enjoyed over the years getting to be a part of other people’s lives and to have built the relationships that I have with families, with participants in programs and with colleagues. I really love all the people that I work with and getting to come to work every day.
What’s it like being involved in the lives of a generation of kids?
I will now see those kids coming back and being camp counselors as we’re hiring them. There’s a group of people that I see that will still call me Miss Emily, because that’s how they knew me 15 years ago. Those are some really special times. Getting to see those kids come back, they were two and three years old in the program, and now we’re hiring them, as 16- and 17-year-old counselors. It is really heartwarming to get to see that.
What’s the importance for you in impacting the next generation of Baltimore Jewish kids?
It’s so important, probably now more than ever, to work in a place where we have the opportunity to help kids, parents and families, to be able to deepen their own Jewish identity or just create connections to wherever they are on their Jewish journey or to a Jewish community. We are positioned to be able to help others who maybe aren’t Jewish to learn more about our Jewish culture, traditions and values through the programs that we run.
