Team

Staff

Alex Goldfarb (he/him)
Executive Director, Board Chair

Alex has been with Amir since shortly after its founding, and has served in the organization in a variety of leadership roles. Alex is a second-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, which is nourishing his love for hevrutah (paired) learning that he developed in Amir garden beds. Prior to rejoining Amir’s staff in 2021, Alex lived in Hargeisa, Somaliland where he co-founded DK Fishing, a social enterprise seeking to accelerate the growth of the country’s nascent fishing industry. Alex is based in Cambridge, MA.

Contact Alex at alex@amirproject.org

Sasha Fraser (she/her)
Recruitment Coordinator

Sasha is an Amir Farmer alum from Summer 5782 / 2022, student, cook, home gardener, and aspiring teacher. She grew up in Massachusetts but has made her second home in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. She cares deeply about nature-based learning and nurturing children into healthy and happy humans. Judaism is a strong piece of her identity and is so happy to have found an avenue that combines all of her passions - Judaism, farming, food and teaching. She could not be more excited to connect youth with Jewish learning and agriculture opportunities in her role as Recruitment Coordinator.

Contact Sasha at recruitment@amirproject.org.

Rel Brender (they/them)
Marketing Coordinator & 2022 Mentor

Rel's farming & education career began in 2014, when they apprenticed to Amir Farmers at URJ Eisner Camp. The following year, Rel completed the Amir Training Seminar and returned to Eisner as an Amir Farmer! Since then, Rel went on to pursue educational farming at their alma mater's community garden, the New York Botanical Gardens, a public school in rural Panama, and beyond, as well as commercial farming in rural New Jersey (Lenni-Lenape land). Rel has since merged their loves for earth-based Judaism, food & medicine cultivation, and storytelling by joining the Amir team in early 2022 as the Marketing Coordinator.

Board of Directors

Stef Bugasch Scopoline
Board Secretary

Stef has been farming with Amir since 2013, as a Farmer, then Mentor, Program Director, and now Board Member. Stef has a BA in Environmental Studies and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Wisconsin, and is dedicated to working towards providing opportunities for people to have access to delicious, fresh food.

Yan Digilov
Board Treasurer

Yan is the Chief Local Advisor at Firestarter, a Houston-based firm that focuses on active management of charitable portfolios and strategic project development. He graduated from Rice University with B.A. degrees in Mathematics and Economics. After spending time working in money management and as a technology consultant, his present role combines his professional experiences with a passion for nonprofit work. Focusing on efficient allocation of capital and human resources, Firestarter deploys active management techniques to ensure clients’ charitable portfolios capture maximum amounts of social alpha. Yan founded Amir with David in 2010, and was instrumental in laying the institutional foundation for the organization.