ANDREW B. HAHN, Ph.D. '78
Director

Andrew B. Hahn is a professor with The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. In 2007 he was appointed to direct the new Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy.

A leading expert on youth development for international donors, multi-national corporations and American foundations, Hahn will lead an effort to enrich the Heller School's educational offerings with content and research about contemporary philanthropy and to stimulate the growth of effective philanthropy among family foundations and others. Hahn teaches courses on social policy and program evaluation, youth policy, community building and others.    more →

CLAUDIA JACOBS '70
Director of Capacity Building

Claudia Jacobs,'70 has worked at the Heller School since 1997 as Director of Development, Communications and Alumni Relations. Prior to joining the Heller School, she worked as the Major Gifts Director and Associate Campaign Director at Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston. Transitioning from social work to philanthropy, her first position was senior associate at The Philanthropic Initiative which provides strategic philanthropic consulting services to high net worth individuals and corporations.

Jacobs spent the preceding 20 years as a social worker. Her career spanned program development for a Boston area anti-poverty agency, community mental health and youth development in Vermont, and later child abuse prevention and policy. Later, she founded and directed The New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioners (based at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston) and was on the faculty at the Boston University School of Social Work.

Jacobs earned her MSW in community practice at the University of Michigan. Her commitment to the not for profit sector and her work on both sides of the philanthropic landscape has led to her interest in advancing philanthropy.

SUSAN LANSPERY, Ph.D. '89
Research Scientist

Susan Lanspery is a Research Scientist at the Center for Youth and Communities (at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management). She earned her doctorate in social policy at the Heller School and has conducted evaluations, managed research and demonstration programs, and provided technical assistance for more than twenty years. Current and recent projects have focused on programs serving low-income youth (in the areas of improving college access, teaching entrepreneurship, enhancing life skills, and supporting youth workers) and on community collaborations. Before joining CYC, Dr. Lanspery conducted research, produced publications, and provided technical assistance for national, state, and local organizations on linking services with housing for older people and people with disabilities.   more →

ELENORE GARTON
Senior Researcher

Elenore Garton is a Senior Researcher at the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management.  She coordinates the research efforts of the Sillerman Center along with co-teaching a graduate level course on Philanthropy.  Elenore previously  worked as a Research Associate for the Center for Youth and Communities at the Heller School where she conducted an evaluation of a media-literacy curriculum.  She also was the Field Director for the University of Wisconsin's Study on Families and Work.  Elenore worked in direct service provision as a residential treatment counselor for abused and neglected children and as the director of an after-school program for at-risk youth.  Elenore has garnered policy and implementation experience through her work in the Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor's office and as a current member of the Massachusetts task force for aging out of foster care.  She is a board member of the Wilson Foundation and has chaired their family homelelssness initiative since 2001.  She sits on the National Advisory Board of the Campaign to End Child Homelessness and is a member of the Youth Transition Funders Group while being Co-chair of the Juvenile Justice Workgroup.

Elenore obtained her B.A. in Sociology from Colorado College (1998) where she focused on children, youth and families.  She holds a MPA from Cornell University's Institute for Public Affairs (2005). Her master's thesis explored prison phone monopolies.  Elenore also has an MA in Social Policy where she focused on youth in transition and is a Doctoral Candidate at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Managment.  Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the overlap between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and particularly on status offenses or noncriminal misbehaviors.