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Debra London Ben-Ami

Debra London Ben-Ami is the Executive Director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies.

She has an extensive background in fundraising in the U.S. and Israel and expertise in corporate volunteer management. Prior to coming to NYU she was the Vice President for Corporate Community Projects at Matan Israel, the Israeli United Way, where for six years she initiated and managed cooperative projects between the business and voluntary sectors.

As Israel Representative of Passion Marketing (Gary Wexler & Associates) she conducted a feasibility study for the Ford Foundation to assess founding a Strategic Communication Center for NGOs in Israel, and a marketing plan in Israel for Tzav Pius (a project of the Avichai Foundation). London Ben-Ami was Founder & Director of the Alma Developmen tCenter (Business for the Arts), providing consulting and development services to 73 arts organizations in Israel. As Resource Development Consultant for Shatil, New Israel Fund’s Capacity Building Center for Social Change Organizations, London Ben-Ami consulted Jewish and Arab organizations on fundraising, PR and marketing. London Ben-Ami was the first-ever Director of Development for the Batsheva Dance Company, Israel for 3.5 years, having previously filled the same job for the Trisha Brown Company in New York for 3 years.

With a unique American-Israeli background, having been born in the U.S. and making aliya to Israel in 1968, London Ben-Ami earned a B.F.A. in Theater from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1986 and was an actress at the Haifa Municipal Theater for two years. She has shared her wealth of experience with students and top NGO managers as a lecturer at the Tel Aviv University Recanati School of Business, the Open University, IDC Herzliya and other venues.