Allen Taylor, Ph.D.

STEP Executive Director, Allen Taylor, PhD, has been directing the Laboratories for Nutrition and Vision Research at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University for 35 years. He has extensive success building and managing international, interdisciplinary, and collaborative scientific programs. Recent projects involve multiple research teams working in Israel, China, Australia, Holland and India. The objective of these programs is to prolong vision by preventing or delaying age-related eye diseases including age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. His laboratories discovered a way to delay macular degeneration for over 100,000 people in a 5-year period as well as opened up new opportunities for pharmaceutical intervention. Dr. Taylor has managed over $30,000,000 in national and international grants that have required continual annual reportage and accounting. He has published over 230 scientific articles and monographs, and 2 books.

Kim Kronenberg, MPH

STEP Co-Director, Kim Kronenberg, MPH, has decades’ of experience as a public health practitioner with expertise in health communication and the use of media to promote health. She was the founder and director of the Office of Health Communication for chronic diseases at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Professor Kronenberg was an adjunct professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and the Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. She has directed dozens of health communication campaigns, and has facilitated strategic communication planning efforts for clients in the US and globally.

Kobi Russell

Outreach Coordinator, Kobi is a graduate of Brandeis University where he studied conflict resolution. His experience includes work in another Palestinian-Israeli peacebuilding organization based in the US.

Raed Leil

STEP’s Regional Representative, Raed was the Executive Director of the YMCA in Jerusalem, for many years, and facilitated many successful STEP Convocations at that location. Raed is also the Chief Operating Officer of Project Rozana, one of STEP’s partners. Raed’s education includes a Masters Degree in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Hebrew University.