The Key to Leadership is Building Bridges

The Key to Leadership is Building Bridges

Rachel Roberts | Manager of Marketing & Leadership Engagement

Beach Hillel and Alpert New Leaders Forum Participants wins “Best Community Leader” award from LB Post.

“To be a leader is to be a bridge builder. More than that, it’s to serve as a bridge yourself.” says Taryn Williams, who was recently named Best Community Leader by the Long Beach Post’s annual “Best Of Long Beach” reader’s-choice awards. Taryn, who also goes by her Hebrew name, Tirtzah, is an accomplished researcher, speaker, presenter and activist. Through academics and community service, she’s forged her path as an advocate for increasing Jewish visibility and representation.

Much of Taryn’s community work is centered around bridging the various communities she represents. Throughout her academic career, she’s researched and challenged barriers to academic and professional advancement faced by the formerly incarcerated community, to which she also belongs. In her role as campus ambassador intern to Gift of Life Marrow Registry, she builds bridges between patients in need and eligible donors. To date, she’s added 128 potential donors to the registry and facilitated two matches. Additionally, she empowers leaders, clergy, and educators from interfaith communities to navigate difficult conversations about Israel with Project Shema, in collaboration with Jewish Orange County.

“Everything I do and everything I am is because of my Judaism,” Taryn reflects. She feels especially grateful to the guidance and stability she found in the Jewish community. That sense of community represents a journey that first led her to Beach Hillel, where she and her young children found a place to thrive in an otherwise not-so-kid-friendly college environment as an undergrad at Cal State Long Beach. She later served as Beach Hillel’s Treasurer. The Hillel community, in turn, led her to Shul by the Shore, and ultimately her family’s decision to enroll twins McKayla and Isaiah, now 7, in the Hebrew Academy.

Taryn Williams has forged her path as an advocate through academics and community service. She’s made it her personal mission to empower herself and others to challenge implicit biases.

Taryn Williams has forged her path as an advocate through academics and community service. She’s made it her personal mission to empower herself and others to challenge implicit biases.

That feeling of belonging is hard to replicate, but that didn’t stop Taryn from committing to the Jewish student community at her new school. Starting her Ph.D. in Organizational Management at UC Irvine prompted her involvement in OC Hillel, where she now serves as a bridge between postgraduate students and Jewish life. As a participant in the Alpert New Leader’s Forum 2020-21 cohort, Taryn actively engaged in lively discussions and hands-on experiences to prepare for lay leadership roles in Jewish agencies, such as Hillel. By trailblazing the position of Vice President of Graduate Programs on the OC Hillel Board of Directors, she’s opened the door for Jewish and Israeli students from graduate to post-doc programs to connect.

She maintains all of these roles: mother, student, researcher, activist, and volunteer, with tremendous grace, and a style that’s completely her own. She’s made it her personal mission to empower herself and others to challenge implicit biases, which can often prevent us from seeing the “divine spark” in others. The divine spark, Taryn explains, is the Torah’s way of asserting each individual’s innate goodness. If there’s one thing she hopes she can teach others in her role as Long Beach’s “Best Community Leader,” it’s that we all possess a divine spark, the ability to be a leader. Mazel tov, Taryn, on this momentous achievement, and kol ha’kavod (all the honor) on your unwavering commitment to service.