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Professional Staff
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Jeff Cohen

Executive Director

Jeff Cohen has been the Executive Director of AHCA since 2008.

 

During his tenure, Membership, Oral History, Katherine Drake Hart Award, Newsletter and Waterloo Press book publishing were all revived or significantly expanded.

 

The Angelina Eberly Event moved to a luncheon and set records in attendance and fundraising and increased the organization's budget 200% driven by record membership and sponsorship in AHCA’s history. 

Also under his tenure, in 2018 AHCA successfully advocated to City Council for placement of $16.5 million in bonds on the November, 2018 ballot for renovation and expansion of Austin History Center and the John Henry Faulk Library Building. The voters approved the bond. In 2021, AHCA received its first $1 Million dollar endowment gift.

 

Prior to AHCA, he was a consultant in financial development for non-profits, a lecturer and adjunct professor in graduate and undergraduate Social Work at UT-Austin, Texas State and St Edwards Universities. In 1998, he wrote the grants that won millions of dollars to help create and develop the Dell Jewish Community Campus.  In 2019, Jeff was a founding member of the Austin Jewish Community Archive at the Austin History Center.

 

Jeff has a BA in History from Tulane University and Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia. At the University of Georgia, he was awarded NASW-Unit Student of the year, as selected by the faculty. Originally from New Orleans, he has lived in Austin since 1991, is married to Francine Gertz, a retired HR Manager, and has one daughter who recently graduated in Media Arts from University of North Texas.

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Dane Anderson

Membership Coordinator

Dane Anderson is the AHCA’s Membership Coordinator, working on a part-time basis. She has played a vital role in expanding citizen participation in the association five-fold since 2018 smashing the previous membership high of 396 in the mid-1990’s. Her skills have contributed to re-structuring member marketing, focusing toward corporate opportunities and the revival of Life membership with record setting results for the AHCA endowment. Additionally, she is implementing a new customer relations software for exponential growth. Additionally, she has a free-lance writing company and is assisting numerous authors in writing books, articles and thesis efforts.  Prior to assisting the association, she was a senior project manager at AngelouEconomics developing economic development strategies for cities and counties throughout the country. She has also served as an award winning reporter and feature writer for Cox Media, Executive Director of the Westlake Chamber of Commerce and consultant in the oil and gas industry. Dane attended UT-Austin, has lived in Austin since 1978 and has one daughter. She is a great lover of animals, cool weather and working in her garden.

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