Ian Sandler

Co-Founder and Board Chair

Ian Sandler, Riley’s father, co-founded Riley’s Way Foundation with his wife Mackenzie to honor their most magical daughter and to carry Riley’s spirit and love of life forward. Ian joined Insight venture partners in 2016 where he is a Managing Director and Insight’s Chief Operating Officer. Ian was a board member of the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation for seven years with a focus on event planning and fundraising.

Mackenzie and Ian established Riley’s Way Foundation to honor the life of Riley through our new programming with high school students that will create a movement at a time when kindness and empathy are most needed in our world.

Mackenzie Sandler

Co-Founder

Mackenzie co-founded the Riley’s Way Foundation in honor of Riley, her daughter and best friend. As the person who knows Riley best, Mackenzie intends to make sure the Foundation stays true to the essence of who Riley was: a kind, compassionate and truly special friend to all who were lucky enough to know her. She has no doubt that Riley would have been immensely proud of the work that is being done in her name.

Mackenzie previously worked as a bankruptcy attorney.

Amy Bersh

Director & Secretary

Amy Feinsilver Bersh, a close friend of Mackenzie and Ian Sandler, is a former intellectual property attorney. As a mother of two, Amy values the importance of teaching your children to be thoughtful and kind.

Amy is devoted to developing programming that promotes Riley’s qualities by emphasizing the values of kindness and empathy. Amy works on the day-to-day tasks involved in developing and growing the foundation. She assists with events, fundraising and communications with board members and the public.

Paul Burke

Director

Paul Burke is the Head of School at The Nightingale-Bamford School, and is honored to contribute to a very special foundation for an even more special member of the Nightingale community. Riley was the quintessential Nightingale girl, an inquisitive and imaginative student who was a friend to all. Riley’s Foundation lives out the promise that a particularly magical Lower School girl represented for all of us who remain. To that end, every Nightingale girl, with Paul as their representative, is privileged to be a part of a very real and ambitious effort to make the world more reflective of Riley’s heart and mind.

Eric Frank

Director

Eric Frank is a childhood friend of Ian Sandler and he and his wife Lisa are close friends with Ian and MacKenzie. He is a father of three boys and lives with his family in Tribeca. Eric is a partner at Intrade Capital Group II.

Eric is primarily focused on helping Ian and MacKenzie grow Riley’s Foundation to help children in need and to recognize children for acts of kindness. He currently assists with Strategic Planning, Event Planning, and Fundraising. His main goal is to help steer this Foundation towards its ultimate goal of making a difference in children’s lives today and tomorrow. He is excited and proud to be a part of the Riley’s Way Foundation.

Jordan Freundlich

Director

Jordan Freundlich is a close friend of Mackenzie and Ian Sandler, and one of Ian’s closest friends since second grade. Jordan is currently a lawyer with Vishnick McGovern Milizio LLP in Lake Success, practicing estate and commercial litigation. Jordan is also a board member for Literacy Nassau, a not-for-profit organization providing services for hundreds of functionally illiterate adults and children with learning disabilities in Nassau County.

Jordan’s goal is ensure that the Foundation meets its mission to help children and promote the characteristics that made Riley so special, especially her kindness and empathy. Jordan is involved in developing the Foundation’s ideals and organizing fundraising events.

Laura Rebell Gross

Director

Laura Rebell Gross is the Managing Director of Girls’ Education for Student Leadership Network, which is the umbrella organization for three educational initiatives: College Bound Initiative, Young Women’s Leadership Network, and The Young Women’s Leadership Schools. Through her work with five all girls’ public schools here in New York City and 15 National Affiliate schools, Laura oversees programs that serve more than 8,500 girls . As a leader in the education field for the last fifteen years, Ms. Rebell Gross implements a vision for developing innovative programs that enrich girls’ lives, create experiential leadership opportunities, and build a path to college. To impact the lives of girls beyond New York City, Laura co-founded the Young Women’s Charter Prep School of Rochester, a public school serving girls from the city of Rochester, and takes the lead in identifying and establishing new school affiliates nationwide

Laura’s goals for the foundation are to empower young women in the Youth Council to change their communities and spread Riley’s values of kindness, empathy and friendship and to help ensure that work of RSMF creates a sustainable model of programs to impact schools across New York City.

Noah Heller

Director

Noah and his wife Meryl are close friends of Ian and Mackenzie. Noah is Chief Executive Officer of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, a 650 lawyer international law firm.

Noah is actively involved in developing the Foundation’s programming. His goal is for the foundation to honor the memory of Riley and improve the lives of many children. Noah is also a Board of Director for the Fairfield/Westchester Chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

Meryl Heller

Director

Meryl and her husband Noah are close friends with the Sandler family. Meryl is a devoted mother to her two children.

Meryl strives to foster enthusiasm and a sense of community around the foundation’s mission.

John Horner

Director

John and his wife Christina have been friends with Ian and Mackenzie since the fall of 2010. This is when Riley started kindergarten at Nightingale Bamford and became one of their daughter’s best friends.

John’s hope is to help the foundation create programs that over time will inspire teens to make the world better, the way he knows Riley would have.

John is currently a Managing Director at JPMorgan.

Mindy Jacobs

Director

As Director of Timber Lake Camp, Mindy was fortunate to see firsthand Riley’s magical qualities and beautiful spirit. Riley’s love of making friends and being kind and compassionate made a lasting impact on everyone at camp. Since the inception of Riley’s Way, Mindy and her husband, Jay, have become close friends with Mackenzie and Ian, working together to honor Riley’s life at camp and beyond.

Having worked in camping for over 30 years, Mindy is devoted to instilling the beautiful qualities that we affectionately term “Riley’s Way” to her campers each summer. Mindy’s camp experience, along with her passion for empowering young girls and building their self-esteem, has made her a great asset in advancing Riley’s Way mission.

David Johnson

Director

A former colleague and close friend of Ian and Mackenzie, is a Partner at Caligan Partners. David is a member of the Investment Committee and brings over 15 years of direct investing experience to the Committee. He hopes the work of the Riley’s Way Foundation honors the memory of Riley and makes a tangible impact in fostering kindness in children.

Lauren Hyman Kaplan

Director

Lauren Hyman Kaplan, M.A is a school consultant, certified emotional intelligence coach and counselor in the field of social-emotional learning, emotional intelligence and bullying prevention.

Lauren is a former teacher and school counselor with over 20 years of experience training and providing consulting to schools and parenting organizations around the United States and the world. She is an instructor for the Certificate in Social-Emotional Learning and Character Development at the Academy for SEL in Schools at Rutgers University and an adjunct instructor at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Lauren is a member of the board of trustees at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Montclair, NJ.

Lauren lives in Montclair, NJ with her husband and two children. Lauren is excited about helping Riley’s Way with their mission to empower youth to lead with kindness and empathy.

Terry Kaplan

Director & Chief Creative Offier

Terry Kaplan is Riley’s grandmother. She serves as a creative consultant and photographer to the Foundation and is the driving force behind Miami events. Terry hopes to see Riley’s Way inspire many children to be kind, confident, nonjudgmental and mindful of the people around them with long lasting results. Terry is currently a mixed media artist and president of Terry Tiles.

David Kerstein

Director

Dave and his wife Erica are close family friends of Ian and Mackenzie. Dave and Erica’s oldest son knew Riley since birth, was one of her oldest friends and attended camp with her, and their youngest son is friends with and attends camp with Brody. Dave is currently an Investment Manager and Legal Counsel at Bentham IMF. Dave is a 1996 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and a 1999 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where he first met Ian nearly 19 years ago during orientation week at an all-you-can-eat Sushi dinner.

Dave’s goal is ensure that the Foundation meets its mission to promote Riley’s legacy and ensure that her spirit helps to instill kindness, empathy and friendship in other children.

Brian Potash

Director & Treasurer

Brian graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1996. He spent his career in financial services, most meaningfully between 2000-2011 as a founding Partner and CFO at Intrade LLC, a proprietary trading firm located in New York City.

Since closing Intrade in 2011, Brian has focused his energies primarily on volunteer work.

Beginning in September 2018, Brian has been enrolled at Iona University, studying for his Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling.

Brian and Ian Sandler have been the closest of personal friends for the past 30+ years. Brian lives in Purchase, NY with his wife Robin and two daughters, Reese and Casey.

Todd Solow

Director

Todd Solow is a Partner at Norwest Equity Partners (NEP), a middle market equity investment firm founded in 1961. NEP partners with business owners to grow, build and nurture their companies to create meaningful long-term, sustainable value.

Todd is a 20-year friend of Ian’s. His goal for the foundation is to create a permanent legacy of Riley’s spirit by creating opportunities for children to better the world we live in.

Dr. Christine O'Connell

Executive Director

Dr. Christine O’Connell is an organizer, a scientist, an educator, a strategist. She comes to Riley’s Way with a distinguished career in communication, science policy, outreach and engagement, empowering voices and building empathetic leaders. She was the founding Associate Director at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University where she helped create and build the Center and its empathy-based communication curriculum to international acclaim. She led the growth of many of the Alda Center’s flagship programs, and under her direction the Alda Center’s workshop program trained over ten-thousand scientists worldwide to be more effective communicators.

Christine is a sought-after public speaker and curriculum designer, and has led workshops and headlined at conferences and institutions around the world. She has spoken at dozens of institutions including NASA, Caltech, the Broad Institute, Google, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the National Academy of Sciences, and Okinawa Institute of Technology. She has published in various outlets including the New York Times, science journals, and book chapters. In 2018, she was named a Women in Power Fellow, a New York based fellowship for rising female leaders.

Christine has a record of providing strategic direction to grow non-profit and academic organizations, research initiatives, and environmental and community campaigns. She worked for Partnerships for Parks and City Parks Foundation to help community groups in New York City think strategically and implement their vision for parks and open spaces. She also helped lead a campaign to raise funding for parks and open space in New York City, organized conversations around climate change policy during the 2000 Presidential Primaries, and built bridges within academia between science, the public, media, and policy makers. As a professor in the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University, Dr. O’Connell developed research initiatives, served as the co-lead on multimillion-dollar grants, and mentored and taught students. She is passionate about advancing women in STEM and business, and promoting diversity and inclusion in the sciences. Currently she serves on the Advisory Board for 500 Women Scientists, and retains visiting faculty appointments at Stony Brook University in New York and the Centre for Public Awareness of Science at Australia National University. She received her B.S. from Cornell University, and Ph.D. in Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

Laura Kikuchi

Program Director

Laura joined Riley’s Way in 2015 and has been instrumental in building the Foundation from an idea into the national organization it is today. From creating Riley’s Way Program curriculum and administering grants to our partner schools, to organizing many of the day-to-day operations, Laura wears many hats at Riley’s Way. Most proudly, Laura helped Riley’s Way reach the national stage in 2019 through the Call for Kindness and Youth Leadership Retreat. Overseeing both programs involves outreach to students, teachers, and partners across the country, managing their applications, and cultivating a space where like-minded teens are able to connect to each other. In addition to all of this, Laura’s is also one of the smiling faces you’ll see if you attend any of our Riley’s Way events.

Prior to joining Riley’s Way, Laura worked at the National Center for Victims of Crime as the Program Assistant for the Stalking Resource Center. During her almost three years there, she helped the SRC train and assist thousands of criminal justice professionals and victim service providers nationwide, including supporting the roll-out of the Use of Technology to Stalk online training course. Laura received her BA from Vassar College and her MSSW from Columbia University. She lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and in her spare time is on the search for the best Dim Sum in the neighborhood.

Lauren Shenkman

Program Director

Lauren Shenkman is honored to be one of the Program Directors at Riley’s Way. She oversees strategic partnerships and the Riley’s Way Councils, managing multiple public-private school partnerships that empower New York City students to practice kindness and empathy so they can lead a movement of change to strengthen their communities and create meaningful connections. Previously, Lauren served as the Director of Membership & Community Engagement at Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim, the Director of the Educational Alliance’s historic Downtown Community Center, the Director of Youth Programs at the 14th Street Y, and the Beacon Director at Moshulu Montefiore Community Center. Lauren lives in Brooklyn with her husband Ben and their two sons.

Raq Massey

Operations Associate

Raq began with Riley’s Way as a Communications Intern and has now grown into the role of Operations Associate. Her role now includes managing the social media, programmatic support, and creating systems for administrative efficiency.

Following her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 2018, Raq worked at the Posse Foundation as a Newman’s Own Fellow. Her work prior includes community organizing, mitigation, and diversity & inclusion programming/facilitation. She has long believed in that leadership has no age requirement and is dedicated to encouraging and empowering more youth to find their voice.

Ashley Lin

Intern

Ashley Lin is a student from Vancouver, WA on a mission to combat systemic inequities in global education through edtech entrepreneurship and education policy. Her journey with Riley’s Way started in 2019 with the Call for Kindness and Youth Leadership Retreat, experiences that taught her to inspire empathy in diverse disciplinary and ideological spaces. She is grateful to bring student voice to Riley’s Way outreach on a national level and increase awareness of these opportunities!

Along with being a student, Ashley is an entrepreneur, organizer, and journalist. She is the Founder & CEO of Project Exchange, a youth-led 501c3 nonprofit increasing access to cross-cultural learning experiences for middle and high school students around the world by harnessing innovative technologies—such as virtual exchange. At home, Ashley lends her voice to reimagining work-based learning with the Washington State Board of Education and designing & teaching project-based entrepreneurship as a Co-Director for Portland’s TiE Young Entrepreneurs program.

In her free time, Ashley writes for publications such as Tuft University’s Tomorrow’s Earth Stewards and Student Voice. She truly believes that stories allow us to exercise empathy and are powerful catalysts for social change; in fact, she’s currently writing a book on how women are widening definitions for “entrepreneur” and “engineer” around the world and collectively shaping the future of work & study. When she’s not waving her hands excitedly while speaking about education and student voice, you can find Ashley practicing Arabic, exploring Portland’s food carts, boxing, and baking [slightly deformed] bread!