Alena Akselrod

About Alena Akselrod

Alena Akselrod is Vice President of Outreach and Engagement at Leading Edge, where she strengthens connections across the Jewish nonprofit sector and expands access to the organization’s resources, insights, and partnerships. Alena has been at Leading Edge since 2016 and has brought a unique blend of strategic relationship-building, data expertise, and systems thinking to her work—previously serving as Senior Director of Data Strategy, where she led the organization’s fieldwide surveys and data initiatives.Her portfolio is rooted in problem solving, data storytelling, and thoughtful collaboration. She has overseen the sector’s largest employee engagement surveys, providing actionable insights to hundreds of organizations and thousands of professionals. In her current role, she builds on these relationships to foster deeper engagement and more responsive support across the field.Alena grew up in Brooklyn after emigrating from the Former Soviet Union in the mid-1990s. Her passion for working with youth launched her Jewish nonprofit career, spending 13 years supporting Russian-speaking Jewish (RSJ) immigrant families at a JCC in South Brooklyn.She holds an M.B.A. in Nonprofit Management and an M.A. in Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University. Alena is an MBTI certified practitioner, a proud Wexner Graduate Fellow & Davidson Scholar, and a JCC Association Merrin Teen Professional Fellow.

Experience

1. Vice President, Outreach and Engagement

   Leading Edge

   Jul 2025 — Present

   Leads strategic outreach and engagement efforts across the Jewish nonprofit sector, with a focus on deepening partnerships, expanding access to organizational resources, and strengthening field-wide connections. Oversees relationship-building strategies that align with sector needs and drive meaningful collaboration.Key responsibilities include: Developing and stewarding strategic, values-driven partnerships Expanding the reach and relevance of Leading Edge’s work across the field Applying a data-informed, people-centered lens to outreach and engagement strategy Aligning internal priorities with the evolving needs of the sectorBrings a unique combination of analytical insight and relational depth to the work, by leveraging thoughtful leadership, field expertise, and commitment to amplifying impact through connection.

Education

• Brandeis University

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management

  2014 — 2016

• Baruch College

  Bachelor of Science (BS), Public Affairs

  2004 — 2009