Senior Leadership
| Jason Ablin - Head of School |
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| Jason Ablin, a product of the Lower East Side in New York City, received his AB degree from Vassar College with a double major in Political Science and English, and his master's degree in English from NYU. He also spent two years at the prestigious Shappell's Yeshiva in Jerusalem, studying Jewish Law and Philosophy. Before coming to Milken Community High School, he chaired the English Department at Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles for six years. He has also written scholarly articles on the relationship between current cognitive neuroscience research and education and the use of educational technology in Jewish day schools. This is Mr. Ablin's 20th year working in Jewish education. Mr. Ablin was the Director of General and Integrated Studies at Milken from 1999 to 2008 before becoming its fourth Head of School. Mr. Ablin is married to Lisa Bellows Ablin and they have two daughters: Kayla Danit and Noa Sarit. |
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| Dr. Jon Cassie - Assistant Head of School |
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Born and raised in southeastern Massachusetts, Dr. Cassie studied History and Classics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, earned a master's degree in History from Ohio State University and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from UCLA. At Milken, Dr. Cassie has been a teacher of English, Latin and History; he also served as Dean for the class of 2005.
Dr. Cassie enjoys traveling, cooking, gardening, modernist architecture and design, folk and outsider art, bowling, reading, writing and game shows. He lives with his family in Simi Valley. |
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| Dr. Roger Fuller - Upper School Principal |
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Dr. Fuller was born and brought up in New England, spending many years teaching in Maine where he also worked as a department chair and theatre director. When he made the journey to Milken in 1999, he knew that he had made his professional "Aliayah" and had found here a new community, new friends and a family of caring families.
Dr. Fuller earned his BA in English from the University of Maine. He holds three masters degrees: an MA in English from the University of Maine, MEd in Educational Psychology of the Gifted/Talented from University of Virginia, and an MS in Educational Technology from Thomas College. He recently was awarded his Phd from Antioch University, focusing in Leadership and Change.
While he thoroughly enjoys the position of Principal of Milken's Upper School, he also completely enjoys teaching Grade 9 English. After spending so many years in the Northeast, the advantages of living in Los Angeles continue to delight him. |
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| Dr. Sarah Shulkind - Middle School Principal |
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Dr. Sarah Shulkind, Principal of the Middle School at Milken Community High School, has known from the beginning that education was the only career she envisioned. Her commitment to educational reform came through experience following an impressive academic background. Sarah Shulkind earned her BA in English and History from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.Ed in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. This summer, she finished her doctorate in Education Leadership at University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Sarah Shulkind was a founding faculty member of the Wildwood School, in Los Angeles, where she was the Middle School Coordinator. Previously, Principal Shulkind directed an integrated learning program in the West Philadelphia Public Schools, wrote policy for the United States Department of Education, worked closely with an elementary school in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Housing Projects, and taught Humanities at an inner-city Boston pilot school. In all of this work she discovered her calling as a middle school advocate and educator. |
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| Rabbi Gordon Bernat-Kunin, PhD - Rabbinic Director |
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Rabbi Gordon Bernat-Kunin is currently serving in his nineteenth year as Rabbinic Director and Director of the Advanced Jewish Studies Center/Beit Midrash at the Milken Community High School of Stephen Wise Temple. He was the founder and Educational Director of Makor, which developed pluralistic, grassroots Shabbat-centered learning communities for Jews in their 20’s and 30’s. He served as Lecturer in Rabbinics at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Scholar-in-Residence for ACCESS, the young leadership arm of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, and coordinator of the Visions Forum of the Shalom Hartman Institute. In 2008-‘09, he received a fellowship in educational leadership at the Shalom Hartman Institute (SHI), and participated as a Shalom Hartman Institute North American Scholars Circle fellow in 2009-2010. In 1992, he received a Milken Jewish Educator Award.
Rabbi Bernat-Kunin received his BA in Political Philosophy from Harvard College and his master’s in Public Health from University of California, Los Angeles. As a Wexner Graduate Fellow, he was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and received his PhD in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of Southern California. His dissertation was entitled Renewing the People of the Book: Theory and Practice for Building Interpretive Learning Communities.
Rabbi Bernat-Kunin is the husband of Dina Bernat-Kunin and father of Gavriella, Yonah, Avi, and Shai. |
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