Arlene Agress

Director, Jim Joseph High School Affordability Initiative
& Director of Day School Accreditation

(818) 464-3398
aagress@bjela.org

Arlene has worked in Jewish Education in both Los Angeles and New York for more than 30 years, 18 of them at BJE. She is currently the Director of the Jim Joseph High School Affordability Initiative and the Director of Day School Accreditation.   Arlene also works closely with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the California Association of Independent Schools, serving as the liaison between the accrediting agencies, BJE Day Schools, and Yeshivot.

Arlene holds a Masters Degree in Education from UCLA.  She attended the Teachers Institute of the University of Judaism (now American Jewish University), spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has also completed a Cognate degree in Theatre Arts at UCLA.  Arlene holds a lifetime California Teaching Credential and has held positions at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, Sinai Temple, Camp Ramah, Brandeis-Bardin Institute, Los Angeles Hebrew High School, Temple Beth Haverim, and Kadima Hebrew Academy in Los Angeles, as well as the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York.  She is an author of the middle school textbook, Why Be Different:  A Look Into Judaism, as well as a chapter entitled “Relating to Jews Who Are Different From Ourselves,” in Hadassah’s Jewish Parenting Book.
 
Arlene is married and has three young adult children:  Rachel, a recent UCLA Law graduate; Daniel, a Math-Physics student at UCLA; and Ariela, a Biology student at Touro College in Manhattan.  Arlene’s husband, Michael, is a psychiatrist. They live in Oak Park, a semi-rural community in the Conejo Valley.