Melissa Friedman

Director of Alumni Affairs

Email: alumni@jtsa.edu

As director of the Office of Alumni Affairs, Melissa Friedman works closely with JTS’s senior leadership and drives JTS’s alumni relations efforts. 

Melissa has been working with JTS alumni since 2004, first as the director of Career Development for List College. For more than five years, Melissa counseled List College students by providing professional, academic, and social guidance. During this time, she successfully nurtured the existing relationships among young alumni and cultivated new connections between recent graduates and current students. Melissa developed and implemented career workshops that brought alumni back to campus, giving students the opportunity to meet with and learn from alumni in their areas of interest. In 2009, Melissa’s involvement with alumni expanded to include all degreed alumni, and in 2015 JTS expanded its alumni audience to include those who studied in one of the different certificate or field programs.

As the director of alumni affairs, Melissa has revitalized JTS’s relationship with alumni spanning more than six decades. She engages alumni through social and professional networking opportunities nationwide, and welcomes the opportunity to hear from alumni who want to plan a reunion. Melissa continues to cultivate relationships between alumni and current students. She collaborates with student group leaders and deans to create and provide meaningful encounters between the two. Melissa strives to develop and maintain close relationships between alumni from all of our schools—degree and non-degree programs—and JTS. 

Melissa earned her bachelor’s degree in Near Eastern Judaic Studies and her master of arts degree in Modern Jewish History at Brandeis University. She also received her master of science in Social Work from Columbia University in 2003, where she focused her studies on social administration and the workplace.