Our 2025 Community Partner Honorees
Ilana Meirovitch
Ilana brings up more than 30 years of executive leadership experience across both the for-profit and nonprofit sector. A passionate and tireless advocate for the Jewish community, Ilana leads with clarity, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to education, empowerment, and unity.
Nationally, Ilana oversees multiple initiatives including Focus Project, a collaborative effort of leading Jewish organization that provide consensus-based resources and messaging on key issues affecting Israel and the Jewish community.
Locally, she is the founder and leader of JCAN (Jewish Community Action Network), an organization dedicated to educating and mobilizing Orange County's Jewish community to stand against antisemitism. Through JCAN, Ilana fosters strategic partnerships with elected officials at the city, county, and state levels, advocating for policies and education that uphold Jewish safety and values.
She is also a vocal leader in the fight for accurate and inclusive Holocaust education, working closely with experts and advocacy organizations to address antisemitic and anti-Israel bias in Ethnic Studies curricula.
Born and raised in Israel, Ilana has called Orange County home for the past 35 years. She and her family are proud and active members of Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot.
Rabbi Richard Steinberg
The Rona Perley Memorial Senior Rabbinic Chair Honoree
Rabbi Richard Steinberg has served as the senior Rabbi of Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot since 2001, guiding its transformation from a congregation of under 300 families to a thriving community over 700—with the largest Religious School in Orange County. A passionate educator and spiritual leader, Rabbi Steinberg is deeply committed to creating a warm, inclusive environment where individuals and families truly feel at home.
He believes that Judaism must be both compelling and relevant, and that temple life should support people on their spiritual journey—from wherever they begin. Under his leadership, Shir Ha-Ma'alot has become known as "the place where children bring their parents," reflecting on his deep commitment to Jewish education and intergenerational connection.
In addition to his rabbinic work, Rabbi Steinberg is a dedicated community leader, servin on numerous local and national boards including:
Chair, Joint Rabbinic Placement Commision of the Reform Movement
Commissioner, Orange County Human Relations Commission
Member, CHOC Mental Health Advisory Board
Vice-Chair, BeWell OC
Executive Board, OC Sheriff's Interfaith Religious Council
Chaplain, Irvine Police Department
He is also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and holds multiple graduate degrees, including an MAHL and Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew Union College, and a Master's in Marital Family Therapy.
Rabbi Steinberg and his wife, Abby Rozenberg, are the proud parents of five adult children.
Lindsey Spindle
Lindsey Spindle serves as President of the Samueli Family Philanthropies. Appointed by Henry and Susan Samueli in March 2022, Lindsey was brought on to rapidly build a creative, high-performance constellation of activities that can meet their diversified, intensified philanthropic ambitions. Lindsey presides over philanthropic organizations including, but not limited to, the Samueli Foundation and Anaheim Ducks Foundation as a way of providing strategic clarity and increased connectivity across all Samueli-supported philanthropic organizations. Lindsey also serves as a senior strategy advisor for H&S Ventures, the Samueli family office.
Lindsey has been a philanthropy executive for a decade, having partnered with two of America's most remarkable engineering entrepreneurs, Henry Samueli and Jeff Skoll. Previously she was President of The Jeff Skoll Group, where she connected and advised Mr. Skoll's portfolio of philanthropic and commercial organizations that include the impact entertainment company Participant, Capricorn Investment Group, and the Skoll Foundation. Lindsey remains a Board director for The Skoll Foundation, serving as chair of the audit and governance committees.
The common thread in Lindsey's career is her dedication to shaping organizations and campaigns that improve people's lives, particularly women and children. She was the first-ever Chief Communications and Brand Officer of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit focused on ending childhood hunger in America through its groundbreaking No Kid Hungry campaign. Under her leadership, The No Kid Hungry campaign won PR Week's prestigious Nonprofit Campaign of the Year in 2015 and increased participation in federal meal programs by several million children year over year.
Before focusing on domestic hunger eradication, Lindsey spent nearly 20 years in health care communications, policy, and government relations working for some of the nation's most respected commercial and nonprofit organizations. These include Georgetown University, Brookings, and Porter Novelli. Lindsey has shaped major national campaigns such as the groundbreaking 'truth' campaign that curbed youth smoking by 30% in one year and was eventually name by Advertising Age as one of the top ten ad campaigns of the 21st century; increased patient safety through reduced medical errors; and secured bipartisan Congressional funding for improving health care safety and quality.
Lindsey was a member of the pioneer class of girls to attend the Lawrenceville School outside of Princeton, New Jersey, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan. She's a fourth generation native Washingtonian turned California transplant along with her husband David and two children. In her spare time, Lindsey is a professional hockey fanatic, book-a-week reader, adventurous eater, Boston Terrier lover, and reformed distance runner turned Peloton enthusiast.
