Ilana Seder Rosen

Ilana works with a dedicated passion to educate, advocate for, and repair the communities and people around her. As the Vice-President of Advocacy at Discovery, Ilana strives to better the healthcare advocacy space. Before she entered her current profession, Ilana was a middle school Spanish teacher working for Teach For America.

She is Chair of the Board of Directors at Mother & Child Alliance, a multi-generational trustee at Jewish Women's Foundation, as well as an active parent at Gan Shalom. In addition, Ilana is the founder and leader of a private family philanthropic foundation, Seder Family Foundation Second Generation, which aims to secure grants for at risk communities and neighborhoods in the local Chicago area.

AGE:
35

PRIMARY GIG:
Vice President, Advocacy @ Discovery

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN 10 WORDS OR LESS:
Kind, inclusive, efficient, tolerant, curious, dedicated, and driven.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME:
I can’t watch or handle scary movies. Even the trailers for scary movies are too much for me!

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IN THE LAST 10 YEARS:
I was a middle school Spanish teacher for 3 years at an underserved school outside Washington, DC. I loved learning Spanish because it was a window into other cultures and places. I was also fortunate to travel as young person and knew the opportunities that speaking other languages afforded. In my first year of teaching, I quickly realized that learning a language in the confines of a classroom didn’t have the same impact as experiencing it firsthand. With that in mind, I planned the county’s first middle-school international trip to Costa Rica. After fundraising to fully subsidize the cost of the trip for all 12 students—none of whom had ever been on an airplane—we had a transformational week in Costa Rica. We had fun, we learned, we visited a middle school and socialized with them in Spanish! We came back bonded as a group, and my students more invested in learning about and appreciative of other culture and languages.

A JEW WHO INSPIRES YOU:
My mama! My mom embodies strength, warmth, and compassion. She ensured all our family’s Jewish traditions centered on joy, was intentional about creating a loving, fun, and close-knit Jewish community for us, and supported us in developing our own Jewish identities. Professionally, she spent her career in a very male-dominated field, and not only held her own but excelled and succeeded without compromising who she was or her values.