Our Team
Founder & Staff
Laura Lauder is a social entrepreneur and venture philanthropist dedicated to designing and launching strategic, high-impact initiatives. She has founded several innovative programs in the Jewish community — including Embark, a cohort-based, 3-month-long Jewish engagement program for interfaith couples that has spread to over 15 cities in the US, and the Center for Media and Democracy in Israel, a nonprofit and non-partisan independent news organization that promotes democratic discourse through investigative journalism. Laura also launched the Duke Gap Year Program in 2018, which funds incoming Duke freshmen to take an experiential growth year before enrolling at Duke, and with her husband, Gary, started the Socrates Program at the Aspen Institute for young leaders to engage in rich conversation about the most pressing issues of our age. To date, the program has engaged over 12,000 young leaders representing 60+ countries.
She currently serves as the Board Chair of the Jewish Federation Bay Area, and she previously chaired the Endowment Committee overseeing more than $2.5 billion in assets. Laura also sits on the boards of Social Finance — a leader in the impact investing space — the Aspen Institute, and the Service Year Alliance, focused on promoting National Service opportunities in the US. She serves on the boards of the Ronald Lauder Foundation in NYC and the Osher Foundation in San Francisco, and served for 9 years on the Jim Joseph Foundation, also in San Francisco.
A Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Laura was named one of “10 Women to Watch” by Jewish Woman magazine and has received numerous leadership honors. An avid cyclist and 2009 Maccabi Games bronze medalist in cycling, she lives in Silicon Valley with her husband, Gary, and has two adult children and two grandchildren.
Read more about Laura’s work at lauderfamilyfund.org.
As Program Director for the Jewish Leadership Accelerator (JLA), Zoe directs program strategy, curriculum design, and stakeholder partnerships, leading the fellowship from its inaugural Bay Area pilot to a scalable national model. Outside of JLA, Zoe drives strategic vision and execution across the Lauder family's philanthropy and impact investing portfolios. Blending macro-level strategy with hands-on initiative design, she partners closely with grantees to steward programs from launch to scalable impact. Beyond her grantmaking leadership, Zoe spearheads deal pipeline sourcing and due diligence for the family's impact investments, where she recently designed a proprietary framework to elevate impact measurement and portfolio performance.
Previously, Zoe served as an Impact Fellow at (RED), leading reporting for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and authoring thought leadership on international public health. She graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University with a BA in Political Science and Legal Studies, and her honors thesis on post-Katrina political mobilization was awarded Best Undergraduate Political Science Thesis. Zoe also chaired the External Relations Committee for the Global Engagement Summit, a student led social entrepreneurship conference for young CEOs around the world.
Based in New York City, Zoe is an avid skier, indoor cyclist, and jigsaw puzzle enthusiast.
Board Members
Alison Pincus is an entrepreneur and nonprofit leader who has spent her career identifying unmet needs and building innovative solutions to address them. Three decades spanning e-commerce, media, investing and the nonprofit sector, she has brought creativity, optimism, and a human-centered approach to solving complex problems. She co-founded One Kings Lane, where she served as Chief Strategy Officer and helped transform how Americans shop for their homes. She later founded Allies for Allies, where she serves as Founder and Executive Director, reimagining how families of individuals with disabilities and complex needs find qualified care.
Allies for Allies operates a two-sided care platform connecting families with qualified caregivers who understand behavioral patterns, emotional needs, and complex medical care. A4A partners with state-funded agencies and leading nonprofits and provides financial assistance to families facing gaps between public benefits and the real-world cost of care.
In 2009, Alison co-founded One Kings Lane (OKL) and served as its Chief Strategy Officer. Inspired by the transformation taking place in fashion e-commerce, Alison and her co-founder saw an opportunity to reinvent how consumers discovered and shopped for their homes. One Kings Lane quickly became an industry leader and was acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2016. Recently relaunched, OKL has found a new generation of devotees and remains a go-to destination for home décor e-commerce in the U.S.
In 2018, Alison joined Short List Capital, a group of women investors brought together by a shared passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. Alison holds a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
David Agger has over 37 years of experience in investment and finance. Since 1998 he has managed an investment partnership, Metropolis Partners, Inc. offering direct investment and financial structuring in the real assets industry. Direct investment and advisory activities focus on the acquisition of value added opportunities in solar energy, industrial and R&D real estate in Southern California, Colorado and the New England area. Mr. Agger is the Managing Member of DGEP Management, LLC an early stage developer of distributed solar projects throughout the United States.
He has a longstanding record of community service in the Bay Area where he currently serves as a Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation and is a Member of its Executive Committee and is past Chair of Board and the Investment Committee. He is also Director, Member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Bernard Osher Foundation, Chairman of the Investment Committee for the Foundation for California Community Colleges, is a Board Member of two private family foundations in the Bay Area and is a past Member of the Board and a current member of the Investment Committee of the Jewish Federation Bay Area.
Previously Mr. Agger was a Trustee, Member of the Executive Committee, and Chair of both the Investment and Development Committees of the University of San Francisco, was past President of the Mt. Zion Health Fund, and past Board Member of the Institute On Aging.
Danielle is a seasoned philanthropy executive, with decades of experience supporting nonprofit leaders, organizations, networks, and movements. She is passionate about how philanthropy can help communities thrive. Danielle is the Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at the Jewish Federation Bay Area. As a member of the executive leadership team, she guides the Federation’s community-facing work, deepening its impact in the Bay Area, Israel, and globally. She also manages the Federation’s strategic partnerships with Jewish organizations while building bridges with Bay Area policymakers and philanthropic leaders to advance Jewish community priorities. Since 2014, she has also independently advised high-net-worth individuals and family foundations on mission development, strategic planning, and impact philanthropy.
Prior to joining the Federation in 2025, Danielle worked at the Koret Foundation for 15 years, most recently as Chief Program Officer, guiding grantmaking, communications, and foundation operations. Earlier in her career, she worked in education policy and as a political media and strategy consultant.
Danielle serves on the boards of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, the Brandeis School of San Francisco, and on the advisory board of IsraAID. She is a past board member of Slingshot, a national organization that fosters innovation in Jewish life.
She holds an MPA from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and a BA from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California.