Board of Trustees

Executive Committee

Stephanie Podolak | President

Stephanie Podolak retired from the Department of Justice, United State’s Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, after serving 32 years as an Assistant United States Attorney. During her career, which spanned from 1991 to 2022, Stephanie specialized in the investigation and prosecution of complex, international drug trafficking and money laundering organizations.

In May 2023, Stephanie was selected as a Pro-Tem Municipal Court Judge for the city of Westminster, Colorado. In May 2024, Stephanie received an Associate Judge appointment to the Municipal Court in Thornton, Colorado, and in August 2024, she was sworn in as a Relief Municipal Judge for the city of Aurora, Colorado.

Stephanie obtained her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Stephanie is the mother of two children, Bill, an audio technology engineer and product manager, and Katherine, age 27, who is currently the director of the Young Adult Division of JEWISHcolorado. Stephanie is married to Michael Podolak, who retired as an Inteventional Radiologist with Kaiser Permanente Medical Group.

Dave Eisner | Past President

Dave has been a member of Temple Sinai for 40 years. Both of his children became Bar Mitzvah and were confirmed at Temple. Dave has served on the Board of Trustees for the past ten years, as a trustee for six years and as president and past president for four years. He also previously served on the Denver JCC Board for 10 years. Dave is the retired Executive Director of a nonprofit agency that serves adolescents with severe mental health and behavioral issues where he served as the ED for over 40 years.

Rob Eber | Vice President

Rob’s family joined Temple Sinai in 1968. He attended Religious School, was a Bar Mitzvah (during the Temple trip to Israel) and was confirmed here at Temple Sinai. He and his wife, Leslie, have been members since they married in 1994. Leslie was previously on the Board of Trustees and now Rob is excited to join Temple Sinai’s Board of Trustees. Rob and Leslie’s two children, Iliana and Ben, were active in Temple Sinai’s Youth Group and NFTY, and served on Regional Board.

Rob currently operates a real estate management company. Previously, he practiced law and represented Colorado’s hazardous and solid waste programs as Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Colorado Department of Law. He currently is a City Council Member in Cherry Hills Village and was a 10-year member and chair of the City’s Parks Trails and Recreation Commission. Many moons ago, Rob attended The National Law Center at George Washington University and Colby College.

Marshall Tobin | Vice President

Marshall is a compounding pharmacist, retired. He previously served on the Temple Sinai Board and was President from 1994 to 1997. Marshall was on both the national and regional boards of the URJ and served briefly as President of the Midwest region.

Kathy Zeiger | Vice President

Thirteen years ago, Kathy and her husband found a Jewish “family” home at Temple Sinai. They were blessed to be one of Rabbi Zwerin’s last weddings. Kathy has had the honor of being called to the bimah for her Bat Mitzvah and Confirmation. She and her husband have served as Purim carnival co-chairs. She also served on the Sisterhood Executive Board from 2007-2008. Kathy and her husband celebrated the births of their daughter, Eliana, and son, Mateo, with their Simchat Bat and Brit Milah. Eliana and Mateo are proud graduates from Temple Sinai Preschool and are active in Religious School as well. During her children’s time at Preschool and Religious School, Kathy volunteered on several committees such as the Mom’s Group, the Shabbat Initiative, 1st grade Parent Liaison, and as the Social Action Committee co-chair. For the past year, she has also worked with Temple Sinai Preschool Building Jewish Early Childhood Education Team to increase enrollment, better engage Jewish families, and build stronger connections to the Jewish community. As a board member. Kathy feels like she would be working towards completing the “work” of the congregation. L’dor v’dor is how we continue to build and grow our community. This tenet of Judaism is one that she holds fast to and the one she would like to bring to the Temple Sinai Board. Kathy wants to continue to build upon the connections and relationships that she and her family have with one another and extend them to the larger congregation.

Ana Koser | Secretary

Ana Koser (Sandomire) was born and raised in Denver. She attended the International School of Denver where she learned to speak French fluently as well as igniting her love for other cultures, languages, history, and traditions. Ana and her husband, Gerritt’s two children have been attending pre- school at Temple Sinai for the past 8 years and they are thankful for the education their children have received in both schooling and Jewish traditions. Ana obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing and Real Estate with a minor in French from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a licensed Colorado Real Estate Broker and has been working as a commercial broker for nearly 15 years representing buyers, sellers, tenants, and landlords with their commercial real estate requirements in metro Denver and across the Front Range. Ana’s personal and professional background along with her ability to guide clients through challenging transactions allows her to have a unique approach to each task she works on, which she hopes will benefit the Board of Trustees of Temple Sinai.

Phyllis Babich | Treasurer

Phyllis Babich was born in Austria and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated from Ohio State University where she met her husband Mike. They have been members of Temple Sinai for over 40 years. Their children attended Religious School through Confirmation and now their grandson is in the Religious School. After he daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, she was part of an adult B’nei Mitzvah and then an adult Confirmation class. When Temple Sinai started the Jewish Interest Free Loan fund, she was the first director and held that position for many years. She is mostly retired from the tax and accounting field. She was a member of the Temple Sinai Board of Trustees many years ago, as well as Sisterhood President and on the Women of Reform Judaism National Board.

Board of Trustees

Jeanette Amayo

Upon moving from Florida to Colorado 10 years ago, Jeanette quickly found her Jewish home at Temple Sinai. Both her son and daughter attended Religious School and were Bar and Bat Mitzvah’d by Rabbi Rheins. Jeanette’s daughter, Arielle, will soon be graduating high school and her son Andrew will be a Junior at CSU studying Mechanical Engineering. Together, they traveled to Israel last year to visit extended family and the amazing Jewish Homeland. Jeanette is proud of the incredible young adults her children have become as they continue to be great models for the Jewish community.

Jeanette started her career in Education as an Elementary School Principal in Florida. She has made a career transition and over the past three years she has moved into owning her business in Real Estate. She regularly volunteers as a Special Olympics coach throughout the year in different seasonal sports. As for hobbies, Jeanette loves the outdoors and hiking, and just started learning to play the ukelele! Jeanette is incredibly excited for the opportunity to be on the Temple Sinai Board of Trustees as she is committed to actively supporting its mission and vision.

Al Blum

Al Blum is a fourth-generation Colorado native. Al and his wife joined Temple Sinai over thirty years ago after meeting with Rabbi Zwerin. All three of their children were Bar and Bat Mitzvah’d at Temple Sinai. Their youngest son was a part of the “Sinai Seven” who were Bar Mitzvah’d by Rabbi Zwerin in Israel.

Al practiced as a CPA wile attending law school and graduated with JD and LLM degrees. Al has developed real estate over the last forty years throughout Colorado.

Al is married to Bonnie and they have three children. Justin, Eryn, and Jared, and four grandchildren; two in Vermont (Ezra and Cora), and two who attend Temple Sinai Religious School (Elliot and Silas).

Al previously served on Temple Sinai board of directors and served eight years on Cherry Hills Village City Council. Al looks forward to participating as a board member.

Amanda Brooks

Amanda grew up in Southern California, where she was involved in her synagogue and NFTY, and spent summers at URJ Camp Newman. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was active in Hillel, earned a certificate in Jewish Studies, spent a summer volunteering on a kibbutz in northern Israel, and studied abroad through Semester at Sea. After college, Amanda worked in environmental education at Walt Disney World before moving to Boston, where she and her husband, Josh, lived for nearly a decade. Since moving to Denver in 2018, Amanda has served on several JEWISHcolorado committees, with a focus on engagement programming for young adults. Professionally, Amanda works in people operations and organizational strategy, specializing in employee experience and operational effectiveness.

Amanda and her family joined Temple Sinai in 2022, and their son, David, currently attends Temple Sinai Preschool. In her free time, she enjoys trivia, camping, and exploring local thrift stores for hidden gems. She is honored to serve on the Board of Trustees and looks forward to helping foster a strong and welcoming community.

Reid Goodman

Reid Goodman was born and raised in Denver, CO. He is married with three children and seven grandchildren. Reid practiced medicine in the field of OBGYN for 44 years in Denver delivering approximately 7500 babies. Reid joined Temple Sinai in 1973 when he married his wife, Linda Sunshine. His daughter, who lives in Denver, is now a Sinai member and her two children attend Religious School at Temple Sinai. Reid and Linda enjoy travel. Reid is an avid golfer, and both enjoy spending time with their grandchildren which requires travel to Chicago and Australia.

Jean Guthery

Born and raised in Michigan, Jean graduated from Hope College, a small liberal arts college in Michigan, and then medical school at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. where she earned her M.D. degree. She completed her first residency in general psychiatry and second residency in child psychiatry, both at the University of Colorado. She retired once 18 years ago from private practice and Chief of Child Psychiatry at Ft. Logan Hospital, but was asked by a colleague to come back and work part-time at Aurora Mental Health Center where she remains, working as a child psychiatrist seeing children and adolescents ages 6-18 years old. She has been a member of Temple Sinai for 43 years. She is mother to Lisa and stepmother to Karen, Debbie and Steve. She is grandmother of Charley, Nava, and Tommy, and step-grandmother to Tyler, Jessica, Allison, Andrew and Rachael. Her passions include her children and grandchildren, Temple Sinai, the State of Israel, supporting and strengthening Jewish identity, fighting antisemitism, learning about Judaism and educating non-Jewish people about Judaism and Jewish values, supporting literacy for children, the theater, art, reading (historical fiction), the Colorado Symphony and the opera – usually at Santa Fe. At Temple Sinai, she ahs sung in the Adult Choir for 43 years, attends as many classes as possible, including Sinai Sundays with Rabbi Rheins and Torah Study with Rabbi Zwerin and participates regularly in Shabbat Morning Minyan. Her favorite Temple Sinai fund to support is the IST Fund supporting the yearly visit to Israel for teens – and, of course, strengthening their identity as Jewish teens.

Rebecca Hea-Wilson

Rebecca Hea-Wilson and her family have been a part of Temple Sinai since its founding in 1967. Rebecca attended Religious School at Temple Sinai and her daughter and son were both B’nai Mitzvah here. Rebecca is the Executive Director of Denver Children’s Home, one of the major mental health providers for children in the state of Colorado. She is responsible for all clinical, financial, and operational aspects for the over $9,000,000 agency.

Jerry Lassow

Jerry Lassow moved to Colorado from New York, when he and his wife, Natalie, retired in 2005. Their children followed them to Colorado in 2006 (their son, Steven) and in 2011 (their son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Andrea).

Jerry’s background and expertise was in electronics, where he earned his degree. He worked at numerous companies during the Vietnam War before joining the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for almost 35 years. He started at the FAA in the communication area and stepped up to IBM’s Mainframe Computer maintenance after a 10-month course at the FAA’s training center in Oklahoma City. When he retired, he was a National Airspace System Operations Manager.

Jerry and Natalie joined Temple Sinai in 2009 and became very dedicated members, attending Shabbat services almost every Friday ever since. Both he and Natalie are involved with Temple activities and give their time, support, and love to Temple Sinai.

Adam Melnick

Adam is an Assistant Professor of Management and the Director of the MSU Denver Center for Entrepreneurship. His children both attended the Temple Sinai preschool, where the Melnick family fell in love with the Temple Sinai community. He recently joined the board and is looking forward to acting as a liaison between the early education center and the larger Temple community.

Rachael Narcisi

Rachael Narcisi is a National Board certified and tenured high school math teacher in the Cherry Creek School District, with more than 23 years of experience. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and moved to Colorado, settling in Centennial in 2002 after meeting her husband, Scott, at Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds a master’s degree in administration and principal licensure. She is passionate about project-based learning, a teaching methodology that engages students in real-world applications of math concepts.

Outside of the classroom, Rachael and Scott have two daughters who are both graduates of the Temple Sinai Preschool and are currently enrolled in the Religious School. When she is not teaching, Rachael and her family spend time hiking, biking, road tripping and going on new adventures. She has enjoyed being involved at Temple Sinai for many years now, and has found it to be a tremendously welcoming, warm and nurturing community.

Tamara Siegel

Tamara Siegel was born and raised in the Hudson Valley area of New York, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and spent about a decade in Houston, Texas. Tamara served as the Director of Jewish Life at Houston Hillel, engaging Jewish college students and young professionals. Tamara has been calling Colorado home since 2019, when she moved with her husband, Adam and their newborn, Emily. Her involvement at Temple Sinai began when her daughter Emily started preschool there at the age of two. She is excited to be part of the board and to bring her passion for Jewish community building to Temple Sinai.

John Spanbauer

John (and wife Lori) joined Temple Sinai after a trip to Israel with Rabbi Rheins in 2011. John grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse (where Lori and he met) with a degree in Psychology in 1978, and later an MBA from the University of Colorado in 1987. After graduating from Wisconsin, John moved to Colorado where Lori and he were married. John worked in IT for 45 years before retiring in 2023. John and Lori have two children, Allyson and Justin, and three grandchildren, Cooper, Addison, and Levi. John joined the Board about a year after retirement and is looking forward to being more a part in supporting Temple Sinai’s future.

Jim Stone

Five years after joining Temple Sinai, Jim Stone is excited about representing our community as a Trustee. Jim and wife Jill joined other members on a trip to Israel in 2019. They have remained involved ever since. “We’re proud to be active members,” said Stone. The Stones met, and graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree from Mizzou’s highly regarded School of Journalism. He was a sportscaster for almost forty years. Stone served on the National Alumni Board for the Tigers. Giving back is nothing new for Stone. He was part of the Board of the Huntington’s Disease Association in San Diego where they lived for twenty-five years before retiring to Colorado. The Stone family, all located here, include children Mindy and Zach; son-in-law Kevin, along with grandchildren Kendall and Beckett.

Melanie Wiseman

Melanie Wiseman is looking forward to her time on the Board and gaining a greater connection with the Sinai community. She has lived in Denver for the past 12 years, having moved here with her husband, John, from Boston and prior to that, San Diego. They have two daughters, Juliet and Olivia, and live in Elizabeth. They joined Temple Sinai in 2021 and have been enjoying Religious School, Temple events, and forming friendships with other families. Over the past year, she was been involved with the Religious School Task Force and has been enjoying bringing her girls to Twisted Shabbat. She works fulltime as a speech language pathologist and clinical director for a private practice. Outside of that, she enjoys reading, cooking and baking, and spending time outside with her family.

Emily Yates

Emily is originally from the Chicagoland area but found her true home in Denver, where she moved in 2014. She shares her life with her wife, Kendra, and their 4-year-old-son, Camden, who attended Temple Sinai Preschool. Emily grew up attending Am Shalom in Glencoe, IL, where she became a Bat Mitzvah. She cherishes her memories of celebrating the holidays with friends and family, which have shaped her Jewish identity and values.

Professionally, Emily is a dedicated Food Relationship Coach with a passion for helping women transform their relationships with food and their bodies. She specializes in guiding her clients toward intuitive eating and fostering a deep sense of self-love. Her approach is compassionate and empowering, aiming to inspire lasting, positive change.

As a family, the Yates’ are avid travelers, culinary adventurers, and enthusiastic explorers of all of Denver’s exciting activities. Personally, Emily loves reading, is learning to play tennis, and is an unabashed foodie, always eager to discover the next great restaurant.

Joining the Board of Temple Sinai, Emily brings her dynamic energy and creativity and looks forward to contributing to its vibrant future.