April N. Baskin, Founder & CEO, she/her
To see April’s extended bio and professional background including awards, images, awards, and press kit, click here.
April N. Baskin is an award-winning multi-heritage Black Jewish woman who has been a core organizer and movement leader within the Jewish community for nearly 20 years. She’s helped shift institutions toward more equitable outcomes within and outside of the Jewish world and is a faithful advocate of building just, diverse, and inclusive spaces that cultivate belonging and empowerment.
April is the Founder & CEO of Joyous Justice (and a host of Jews Talk Racial Justice with her beloved co-host Tracie Guy-Decker, see below!) and serves as the Racial Justice Director of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable. Previously, she served as the inaugural Vice President of Audacious Hospitality at the Union for Reform Judaism. During her URJ tenure, among a number of exciting accomplishments, she conceived of and hosted the first season of the Wholly Jewish podcast, conceived of Intro to Judaism Online, and brought the renowned LGBTQ+ Leadership Project to 80% of the URJ’s expansive Youth Department, for which Keshet honored her visionary leadership with the Landres Courage for Dignity Award in 2019.
Previously, she was a Schusterman Insight Fellow, on the steering committee and a featured speaker at the National 2019 Women's March, and the designer and facilitator of the URJ’s JewVNation Fellowship, a leadership program of action and healing for Jews of Color and Jews committed to advancing inclusion. In May of 2020, she launched the #JOCsCount social media campaign rooted in her years of advocacy and foundational research. To see April’s extended bio and professional background including awards, images, awards, and press kit, click here.
Daniel Bahner, Communications Manager, he/him/his
Daniel is who you get when you mix a Disney Princess with a Jedi, which led him to dedicate his career to building inclusive communities and a socially just, sustainable future. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and a graduate of Lehigh University and New York University, he recently completed a Diversity and Inclusion certification program through Cornell University. He joins Joyous Justice after spending five years educating the Jewish community on how to be more inclusive of LGBTQ folks. When not honing Joyous Justice's infrastructure and program operations, he is working as an essential worker at a grocery store and easing on down the yellow brick road of life in Chicago with his canine companion Athena. You can follow their adventures on Instagram at JewitchJedi. (You should follow him! ;)
Catherine Bell, Senior Consultant, she/her
Catherine is April’s co-conspirator and co-creator of Whiteness Havruta and collaborates with her in the management and facilitation of Racial Justice Launch Pad. An accomplished and highly-respected leader, she has spent the last two decades working collaboratively with people to unleash their power as change-makers. She began her career as a grassroots community organizer and has served as a senior executive leader across several Jewish social justice organizations.
Catherine brought her experience and wisdom to the Jewish Organizing Fellowship at JOIN for Justice as the Director of the Jewish Organizing Fellowship. She then moved to Keshet, a national LGBTQ education organization, where she designed and led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion trainings focused on cultural competency and institutional change. As Keshet’s Chief Program Officer for seven years, Catherine oversaw the organization’s largest department and led Keshet’s internal culture-building efforts, including facilitation of staff meetings and all-staff retreats. She then joined forces with Hazon (the largest faith-based environmental organization in the US) to inaugurate its National Programs Department as the organization shifted to a focus on climate change.
Catherine is the founder of Dot Shabbat, a local monthly Shabbat meet-up, and is a founding member of Dorchester Climate Justice. She is currently a Schusterman Fellow, and is pursuing certification in coaching through Coaching for Transformation, a program of Leadership That Works.
Catherine has an MA in Sociology of Education from NYU and graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College with a BA in English. She is a White, queer, Jewish woman who lives in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston, with her spouse and two high-energy children. To learn more about Catherine and her consulting practice, visit www.catherinebellconsulting.org.
Sarah Freyd, Executive & Programming Assistant, she/her
The frontline and backbone of our organization, Sarah supports and guides Joyous Justice’s many engagements and requests with exceptional oppression analysis, compassion, and clarity. A recent Fulbright alumna and graduate of Bates College in Anthropology and French and Francophone Studies (you can access her honors thesis here), Sarah is a long-time Jewish leader (NFTY-NW RCVP, song leader, Kutz alum, URJ everything alum… you get the picture). social justice advocate, and enhances the spaces she occupies with her humbly-delivered (April’s writing this, not Sarah, y’all!) exceptional multilingual, intercultural knowledge.
Tracie Guy-Decker, Senior Partner, she/her
Tracie is a writer and consultant based in Baltimore, Maryland. Until November 2020, she was the Deputy Director at the Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM). In that role, she oversaw all of the operations for a museum that aims to be a convener and connector for all of its communities: the Jewish community, the city of Baltimore, and the national Museum community.
She is a leader for Jewish social justice efforts in her roles as chair of the social justice committee at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and as co-chair of the Baltimore leadership council of Jews United for Justice.
Prior to serving at the JMM, Tracie worked for Johns Hopkins University (twice, in different departments), the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater (Virginia), and The College of William & Mary. She also worked as a freelance and pro-bono marketing and fundraising copywriter through a private practice serving non-profit clients between 2010 and 2018.
Tracie has a Master of Arts in Religious Studies from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. After completing the degree, she began the work of pursuing a PhD in Modern Jewish Thought from the same institution, but left the program, choosing to apply her time and energy to making change outside of academia. She completed her undergraduate work in Religion and English at Oberlin College.
Tracie is (once again) in Baltimore, the city of her birth (this time since 2013). She lives on the city’s west side with her Navy Chief husband (when he’s not stationed overseas), their elementary-aged daughter, two poorly behaved dogs, and a long-suffering cat. To learn more about Tracie, visit www.tracieguydecker.com.