Terri Rosen ensures everything runs smoothly at Jewish Educational Services.
As the director of strategic operations at The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore-run organization, which operates out of the Louise D. and Morton J. Macks Jewish Connection Network, she helps fund educational programs by administering grants and ensures that JES’ various programs all run smoothly.
Rosen, 45, lives in Baltimore County with her husband and children. Her family belongs to Pikesville Jewish Congregation.
Rosen grew up Orthodox in Silver Spring. She attended a Jewish day school through high school, taking a gap year after graduating to study at Darchei Binah, a girls’ seminary in Israel.
She noted that seminary school was a very meaningful experience for her, as it was both her first time in Israel and her first taste of independence as she lived away from her parents for a year.
“Having that year I think really helped to really appreciate that we have Israel,” she said. “It was just amazing to see and to be in a land that is just really for Jewish people. And that was really amazing to me, and every subsequent visit, I just always feel so much at home there.”
Rosen added that while the curriculum was rigorous, she felt very at home at the seminary, and being there helped her mature into a responsible adult.
Once she left Israel, Rosen attended Boston University and majored in public relations, having always wanted to go into a communications-related career. She moved to Baltimore to raise her children. It was here that she first became involved with Ohr Chadash Academy, as the then-fledgling day school was just opening in 2011.
“I was frustrated that I wasn’t doing something I was passionate about at the time, so I started volunteering at Ohr Chadash. My first job there was being a volunteer office manager,” she recalled. “There were many other parents that were volunteering in every capacity the first few years. It was a parent-run organization with a few hired professionals. Now it’s big enough to be professionally run, but it was really important for me to be involved with a school that was a good fit for my family.”
Volunteering at Ohr Chadash was Rosen’s first brush with working in the education field, as she had previously worked at an architecture firm and a financial adviser group. She had worked her way up to being the president of the Ohr Chadash board of directors when she first started work at JES, then housed at the former Macks Center for Jewish Education.
“I felt like my worlds were colliding,” Rosen said. “That my volunteer life was coming together with my professional life. I know some people don’t like feeling like that, but I loved it. It felt like coming full-circle to where I needed to be.”
While she never underwent any schooling for education, Rosen was very involved in Baltimore’s Jewish school system, which helped her immensely at JES. She also uses her prior marketing experience to do marketing work for the organization, promoting its services and planning logistics for events. Rosen works with the marketing staff at The Associated, carrying out policies from JES’ parent organization and making sure everything runs smoothly. And she occasionally works with parents, who come to JES when they need education-related assistance or have questions about Jewish schools.
Currently, she is in the process of administering the Crane Family Foundation Grant to several schools in the area. Every year, the grant supplies funding to schools and organizations committed to Jewish education.
Rosen is passionate about her work, especially the fact that she is so deeply involved with Baltimore’s Jewish community.
“Knowing that I have even a small part in ensuring that Jewish education in Baltimore is good, and that there are places for families to send their kids, is really important,” she said. “Our goal at JES is to be there and support everyone as much as we can.”
