Academic Advisory Board

הועדה האקדמית - משה ישראלשווילי
Prof. Moshe Israelashvili

Professor Israelashvili is an associate professor at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. His expertise is in social psychology, a field in which he has held many positions, including as evaluation coordinator at a project for the advancement of disadvantaged youth undertaken by Prof. Moshe Smilansky of the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. Professor Israelashvili is secretary of the Israeli Association for Suicide Prevention and is the Israeli representative to the Clifford Beers Foundation, which works towards the promotion of mental health. In addition, he is on the staff of the schools of education at Tel Aviv and Bar-Ilan universities, and has served as head of the Department of Developmental Education at Tel Aviv University.

הועדה האקדמית - רמי בנבנישתי
Prof. Rami Benvenisti

Professor Benvenisti is a professor of social work at Bar-Ilan University and the 2016 winner of the EMET Prize for Art, Science, and Culture for his scientific contributions to research in the field of child welfare and safety and to the professional development of social work. He has served in various capacities and established a research group on the topic of children and adolescents. He has conducted various studies concerning adolescents, including at-risk children and adolescents and how their welfare and safety may be promoted – both in the community and school as well as out-of-home settings such as foster care and boarding schools. Additional research by Professor Benvenisti investigates ways of improving decision-making by professionals and policy makers regarding children who are survivors of abuse. Alongside his academic work, Professor Benvinisti takes part in academic and social activism for the benefit of children in Israel and around the world, including service on several committees which have shaped legislation and welfare and educational services procedures.

הועדה האקדמית - חיים להב
Dr. Haim Lahav

Dr. Lahav lectures at the School of Education at Beit Berl College, where he teaches the introductory course on at-risk children and youth as part of the Program for the Treatment of At-risk Youth. He also teaches the courses on at-risk children and youth and on the development of services for at-risk children and youth at the Department of Social Work at Ashkelon Academic College. Over the course of 35 years of service at the Ministry of Education, Dr. Lahav has held positions in training, oversight, and management, with the last as head of the Department for the Advancement of At-risk Youth. His doctorate is in the field of management, with an emphasis on the management of complex systems and organizations, and his thesis dealt with the issue of policy and strategy for the lowering of dropout rates.

הועדה האקדמית - ענת זעירה
Prof. Anat Zeira

Professor Zeira is on the staff at the Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has headed the undergraduate program at the school, served on the social workers certification board, advised the CEO of the JDC-Israel on matters of evaluation and research, was a member of the Council of Social Workers, and was one of the founders of the iaOBER – the International Organization for the Research and Evaluation of Children and Family Services, based in Italy. Professor Zeira’s research deals with various areas of child welfare, especially the development of an empirical basis for social work with at-risk children and their families. She is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of the transition to independence of out-of-home care graduates. Her research focuses on the importance of planning and monitoring interventions and their results, and the ways in which these methods can be implemented in field work.