Shira Felberbaum Kedem, LMSW, MS currently provides dementia support to active and former (bereaved) caregivers, especially to those in the Jewish community and/or in residential settings as a Navigator and Community Builder at CaringKind. As a licensed social worker, she strives to prevent caregiver burnout, reduce stigmatization, foster a sense of connection, and cultivate or strengthen innovative partnerships to meet existing and emerging needs in the field. Shira facilitates emotionally and/or educationally focused support groups, delivers related educational seminars, and provides consultations to individuals and families learning to live with dementia. Shira has consulted independently and also briefly worked for OHEL overseeing a number of departments. Previously at The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, Shira was embedded in six NYC-based congregations as a synagogue consultant, where she engaged clergy, lay leaders, and congregants on how to make the communities more welcoming and responsive to their constituents. Prior to this, Shira spent a decade at MetLife in the for-profit, financial services industry engaged in program / project management across multiple disciplines. She is a graduate of the UJA-based Ruskay Jewish Professional Leadership Institute. From NYU, she holds both a gerontology-focused MSW and a change management / leadership development-focused MS in Strategic Human Resource Management and Development. Shira has a passion for connecting with and supporting older adults by reducing their social isolation, by speaking with them and making them feel seen and heard and as though their lives really matter, and by advocating for them when it has become more difficult for them to do so themselves so that they can get their needs met and live in accordance with their own values. Born and raised in Manhattan as an umpteenth generation New Yorker, Shira and her husband, Gilead, now raise their daughter together in Manhattan as well.