Meet the 2016 Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Young Leadership Award Winner, Sam Goldman

Each year, the Federation’s Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Young Leadership recognizes a community member who is a consistent leader in our Federation volunteer community, has great potential for future leadership, and is 40 years old or younger. Please join us in congratulating this year’s recipient, Sam Goldman!

Sam Goldman

Sam is passionate about Jewish community and works hard to ensure that this community is inclusive, dynamic, and thriving. He serves on the board of Wilderness Torah and is a volunteer with the Federation as co-chair of the LGBT Alliance, since 2014, and a Wexner Heritage program alumnus from the class of 2014. He has dedicated considerable time as a volunteer to ensuring a strong and connected LGBTQ-Jewish community.

One of Sam’s Wexner classmates, Jeff Zlot, noted that “Sam’s passion for Jewish life is reflected in his leadership with the Federation’s LGBT Alliance and his impact in making our community and the world a better place. He has made an indelible mark on the Bay Area Jewish community in a relatively short period of time.” Gene Goldstein Plesser, community program coordinator at Keshet, added that, “working at the intersection of many Jewish, Bay Area, environmental, and LGBTQ worlds, Sam is a guy who defies all labels and categories.” And, Gene continued, “he's empowered LGBTQ leaders (including me) to step up their game in building community among LGBTQ Jews, an effort that is gaining steam rapidly, even as I write this!”

On his work with Wilderness Torah, where Sam serves as the development chair, managing director Nancy Shaw remarked that “Sam is Wilderness Torah's rain maker, tirelessly spreading the word, cheerleading, getting people involved, recruiting other board members, and even winning some great donations for us through a game of high-stakes poker!”

Professionally, Sam is the California Program Director at the Conservation Lands Foundation, helping to conserve 2.2 million acres of precious wilderness across the country. Recently, Sam and his organization worked to designate 1.8 million acres of protected lands in the California desert as part of three new national monuments. Prior to working on conservation efforts in the West, Sam was a consultant in Washington, D.C., where he directed field operations and online advocacy campaigns for national environmental groups.     

Sam has also co-created a several-hundred-member Jewish camp at Burning Man and plans to do so again this summer. A graduate of Bates College with a degree in Political Science, he is an avid skier, hiker, and enjoys exploring remote regions of California and the West.

We are thrilled to honor Sam at the Federation’s Day of Philanthropy on September 22, 2016. Learn More

Posted

May 09, 2016

Author

Nora Smith

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