Meet Class 27 of The Wexner Israel Fellowship

The Wexner Foundation is pleased to announce that Class 27 of the Wexner Israel Fellowship has been chosen for the upcoming year at the Harvard Kennedy School.  Fellows will begin their year of studies for a Master’s in Public Administration this July, together with approximately 200 public sector leaders from 90 countries around the globe.  Based at the Center for Public Leadership, where 100 fellows from 26 countries will come together for programming, the fellowship year will include extracurricular leadership learning under the auspices of the Foundation, including weekly co-curricular meetings together as a class, seminars to learn about and with the North American Jewish community and meetings with Wexner Heritage and Graduate Fellowship members, fellows and alumni. The fellows represent a spectrum of key Israeli government ministries and offices and their professional expertise covers a wide range. They join a network of over 200 Israeli alumni and over 2,500 members and alumni of all of The Wexner Foundation’s leadership programs.

We welcome with pride WIF Class 27 to our Wexner community!

Wexner Israel Fellowship, Class 27

Luay Bader
Luay was born and raised in Kfar-Qassem, Israel.  Since 2007 he has been working in the Ministry of Culture and Sport as a Sports Supervisor for the Central and Southern Districts and as a member and coordinator of the National Council for the Prevention of Violence in Sport.  Luay earned his Bachelor (B.Ed.) in Physical Education from Ohalo College and a Master's degree in Life Sciences from The Zinman College in Wingate Institute.  Luay is the father of two small children, Abdalla and Yuossef, and is married to Mona. 

Major Maria Ben-Assa
Maria is a Major in the IDF Medical Corps and, as the Head of Central Pharmacy Services, combines various disciplines in her responsibilities, including pharmacy, quality assurance and health policy.  She supports policy and operational decisions, improves the efficacy of medical treatments throughout the IDF, implements large-scale projects such as strategic planning and initiates research projects on patient's health-improvement.  She holds a B.Sc. (Pharmacy) from Hebrew University and an MA in Health Administration from Ben-Gurion University.  As part of her leadership vision, Maria has been investing in training a new generation of military pharmacists and medical personnel, building their professional capacity, developing their managerial skills and caring for their self-development and excellence.  Maria is married to Eyal and they have two children, Yuval and Tamar.

Ofer Chen, MD.
After graduating from Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School with a specialty in Internal Medicine, Ofer chose to broaden his scope of treating patients, combining clinical work with medical management.  For the last seven years he has worked in Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel's second largest health maintenance organization, caring for more than two million patients.  In Maccabi, Ofer has risen to the position of Head of the Community Health department, in charge of Maccabi's primary care physician sector, as well as heading Maccabi's interventions for chronic diseases.  His work focuses on remodeling community healthcare to better suit new challenges, such as an aging population, an increase in chronic disease burden and scarce resources. One of his main projects focuses on increasing patients' long-term adherence to chronic medications. Ofer is married to Adi and father to Yuval, Shahar and Dror.  He lives in Kibbutz Mishmarot.  In his free time he enjoys running, reading mystery novels, solving chess puzzles and playing guitar.

Yogev Gradus
Yogev serves as the Head of the State Budget Team in the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance.  Yogev’s team is responsible for constructing the macro-fiscal strategy of the government and for managing the state budget process.  In addition Yogev is in charge of the Israeli Culture and Sports Budgets and is a member of the Board of Directors and the Head of the Finance Committee of the Port of Haifa Company. Prior to his current position he served in a few of the ministry’s departments and was the Parliamentary Assistant to Knesset Member Roni Bar-On.  Yogev holds a Master of Business Administration and a BA in Economics and Accounting (summa cum laude) from Hebrew University. Yogev lives with Bella, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, and their year-old daughter Gal.  Together with his family he enjoys trekking and hiking outdoors, scuba diving and taking care of their dog and cat.

Merav Horsandi
Merav works in the Non-Proliferation Department at the Strategic Affairs Division of the Foreign Ministry.  She represents the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in leading intergovernmental work in foreign and security matters, as well as coordinating international cooperation on these issues.  As part of Israel’s diplomatic corps she has served in Amman, Jordan and Washington, D.C.  Merav holds a BA (magna cum laude) in Political Science and History of the Middle East from Tel Aviv University.  She was born and raised in Givatayim.

Jonathan Tadmor-Eliya
Jonathan is the Director of the Economics Department at the Tel- Aviv District Attorney's office (Taxation and Economics) where he has served as a prosecutor since 1998.  Jonathan specialized in handling large-scale cases of white-collar offenses.  He was the head of the prosecution team of the "Holyland" case, which was considered a milestone in the struggle against corruption in Israel and one of its most significant criminal cases. Twice Jonathan has won the Ministry of Justice's Excellence Award in 2004 as a team member of "The Bank of Commerce" embezzlement prosecution team and in 2013 as a team leader of the "Holyland" case trial.  Jonathan holds an LL.B from the College of Management and an LL.M from Bar Ilan University.  Born and raised in Ramat Gan, Jonathan resides in Tel-Aviv with his partner Aviad and their children Aya and Yotam.

Yoav Tellem
Yoav serves as the head of an investigation branch in the Unit of International & Severe Crime Investigations (Lahav 433) and is ranked commander in the Israel National Police (INP).  He has been with INP since 1999 in various command, operational and staff positions including Legal Advisor to the Head of the Investigation & Intelligence Department, Head of Investigation Division in the Israel Anti-Fraud Unit and Assistant to the Chief Commissioner of the INP.  Yoav holds an LL.B degree from Haifa University Faculty of Law and an LL.M degree from Hebrew University Faculty of Law.  Born and raised in Haifa (Kiryat Haim), Yoav resides today with his wife Yael and their three children, Noa, Eyal and Niri, in the community village of Sarigim.​