Jessica Cavanagh holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she served as president of the Hillel student leadership board. Between her undergraduate and graduate work, she studied at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, Israel and worked in Hillels, synagogues and the Chicago Jewish Federation. She is a proud co-author of Redefining Rebbetzin. A second-year student in the NYU Wagner/Skirball MPA-MA in Hebrew and Judaic Studies program, Jessica is a recipient of the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women (JFEW) fellowship and will graduate in May 2014.