Laura McKee has been hired as executive assistant to the CEO of the Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. McKee began her career with an associate’s degree as a legal assistant from Pima Community College and worked as a legal secretary while earning her bachelor’s degree in business management from University of Phoenix. She served as an executive assistant to the managing partner of a mortgage company and continued to advance her career as an executive assistant in the areas of financial planning, public media, multi-family housing, and real estate development. McKee is (almost) a lifelong resident of Tucson, where most of her family still resides. She enjoys cooking, nature and spending time with her husband of 14 years and her two rescue dogs.
Gloria Stauff has joined the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona as an administrative specialist for the Campaign department. Stauff is a recent Arizona transplant from her native state of Colorado. She previously worked in human resources for Raytheon Technologies, but spent most of the last 16 years in a senior administrative support role for a large nonprofit academic healthcare system in Colorado. She attended the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University, majoring in business and healthcare administration.
Stuart Mellan has launched www.stuartmellan.com to serve as an advisor to nonprofit groups and philanthropies. After 25 years as president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, Mellan retired from the Federation in May.
Rabbi Boruch Zimmerman of Chabad of Oro Valley will be “biking for a cause” from Oro Valley to Nogales, Mexico, on Sept. 6, raising funds to support Chabad’s operations.
Marvin Slepian, M.D., a Regents Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona, associate head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and a member of university’s Sarver Heart Center and BIO5 Institute, has coauthored an essay on how the norms and values defined in the U.S. Constitution could guide pandemic-related law and policy. Slepian also is pursuing a law degree at the UArizona James E. Rogers College of Law. The essay, written with Regents Professor of Law Toni Massaro, who holds the Milton O. Riepe Chair in Constitutional Law and is dean emerita of the law college and professor of law, and Justin Pidot, co-director of the college’s Environmental Law Program, is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s emergence as a politically polarizing issue. Their essay was released on the Social Science Research Network in late June as part of Arizona Legal Studies, a series of working papers by faculty and students in the James E. Rogers College of Law. The paper will be submitted for journal publication.
Temple Emanu-El is eliminating adult education fees for members in good standing for its fall 2020 Jewish Lifelong Learning classes. Fees for nonmembers will continue to apply.
Congregation Beit Simcha will hold a second night of Rosh Hashanah drive-in celebration at Gaslight Theatre Northwest, located at Oracle Road and Rancho Vistoso Blvd., on Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. The cost is $36 per car.
