




About the Sillerman Center
Core Staff Members
Left to right: Sillerman Center staff members Susan Lanspery, Nelli Garton, Claudia Jacobs, Laura Baudo Sillerman, Robert F.X. Sillerman '69, and Professor Andrew Hahn
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 n 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
Scientist
Susan Lanspery is a 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 an advanced doctoral student in Social Policy at the Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She concentrates on children, youth and families with particular interests in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Elenore holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Cornell University and a Bachelor's degree from Colorado College in Sociology. Elenore has worked in direct service, quantitative and qualitative research, and program evaluation. She has also been an active member of a family foundation for fifteen years.


