Anti-Defamation League names new director

Shayna Alexander, a native of Freehold and seven-year Anti-Defamation League (ADL) professional, has been named director of ADL’s New Jersey Regional Office.

Alexander most recently served as associate director of ADL’s Mountain States Regional Office in Denver, Colo., according to a press release.

During her four-year tenure, her portfolio included ADL’s regional efforts in training law enforcement, leadership development, Holocaust remembrance programming, responding to anti-Semitism and discrimination, Jewish institutional security and interfaith dialogue.

Prior to her time in Colorado, Alexander served for three years as a research analyst in ADL’s Center on Extremism, where she monitored white-supremacist activity across the country.

Alexander is a graduate of Rutgers University, where she was active in Jewish campus life and graduated from Rutgers’ Institute for Women’s Leadership Scholars Program.

“We are delighted to begin this next chapter for ADL New Jersey with Shayna as director,” said Ross Pearlson, ADL New Jersey regional chair. “Shayna brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience as a seasoned ADL employee who has worked in the organization’s national and regional capacities. Her leadership is a welcome asset to ADL’s long history of promoting inclusive, respectful communities in New Jersey.”

Alexander said she could not be more pleased to return to New Jersey.

“I look forward to continuing my work with ADL in this new capacity and striving toward a New Jersey that is no place for hate,” she said.

The ADL New Jersey Region encompasses the northern part of the state, from the New York state border to Trenton.

The ADL was founded in 1913 and is the world’s leading organization fighting anti- Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry, according to the press release.