July 2, 2018

I could not be happier in announcing that ECDC now has an Assistant Director, and better yet, that the Assistant Director is Ellen Drook.

Many of you know Ellen as a Temple member and as an ECDC Teacher. Ellen in fact grew up at Temple Emanuel where she celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and those of her two daughters Cosette and Cara.

Ellen taught at ECDC for the past four years and proved herself to be a most dedicated and talented teacher. In 2017 she was in fact the Pittsburgh recipient of the esteemed Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.

Even more important, Ellen is loved by her peers. As ECDC adopted electronic formats for communication, Ellen was the go-to-person for help with technology. At all hours of day or night, she could be found making instructional guides for peers or posting updates on her classroom blog.

The Assistant Director position is 20 hours per week, but Ellen works fast and hard. In her first week on the job, she converted the annual multi-paged welcome packet from hardcopy to digital!  This is the first of many ways in which Ellen will help ECDC to become more efficient and user-friendly. Welcome Ellen!