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Taking it to the next level

by Jessica Carreras

A new leader has taken the helm at the Jewish Gay Network of Michigan, and her plans for the future are big.
Kim Phillips-Knope, who was hired as the organization's first-ever paid executive director last spring, has resigned with just less than a year under her belt. Phillips-Knope said she will be focusing on her own business, Educare Consulting, which works with schools, organizations and businesses in southeast Michigan.
Though she left JGN abruptly, Phillips-Knope said that she still deeply supports the organization's mission and efforts. "I wish JGN the best of luck in its pursuits," she said, "and I feel strongly about the mission of the organization."
Taking Phillips-Knope's place is Judy Lewis, a longtime component of the Jewish and LGBT communities in southeastern Michigan.
Lewis has a history of working in the progressive Jewish community, and said she hopes to do well for JGN in her new position.
"I have a lot of contacts in the Jewish and the GLBT community so I guess it was a good fit," Lewis said. "The universe conspired!"
Born and raised in Detroit, Lewis now resides in Southfield and is the mother of a grown daughter, Jessica, who lives in Boston with her husband. Both, Lewis said, are very supportive of LGBT issues. "They were never going to marry until all people could marry," she explained of the couple. "And now, in Massachusetts, all people can marry, so they did."
Professionally, Lewis comes to JGN of Michigan from a position as director of the Lifelong Learning program at Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield. There, she oversaw the educational program, which included a religious school and opportunities for continuing education. Lewis's position was recently eliminated due to budgetary concerns, so when she was contacted to take over at JGN, she jumped at the chance. "It was a very smooth transition and a very short time lapse between Kim's departure and my arrival," she said of the switch.
Though executive director is a new title for Lewis, her ties to the organization, which serves the metro Detroit Jewish LGBT community with events, resources and support, go back much further.
Lewis served as board president of JGN from 2005 through 2007, when she was replaced by now-outgoing president P.J. Cherrin. The newest board president, Michael Daitch, began his tenure this year.
While with JGN, she wrote the Jewish Women's Fund Twice Blessed Grant, and was responsible for the grant from Keshet, which provided funding for the position she now holds. "I'm very familiar with JGN and…I have a lot of contacts in both the GLBT and the Jewish community, and I've been an educator," added Lewis. "So I kind of fit all of their formats."
With a new president and executive director in place, Lewis said she is eager to begin building JGN of Michigan. "I have every intention of taking this organization to the next level," she said. "There is so much potential and we have so many things that we need to do in terms of education and resources and programming…for Jewish gays and lesbians who might want a social community, as well as an educational community.
"We have the volunteers that can make this work, and we certainly have the interest in the community."
And now, after a brief hiatus, the Jewish LGBT community once again has a leader.

For more information about the Jewish Gay Network of Michigan, including upcoming events, visit http://www.jgnmi.org.

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