Aviva Panush has been involved in formal and informal Jewish Education for over 30 years. Prior to her current position as School Director at Shaarey Zedek, Aviva served as Associate Director for Professional Development at Federation’s Alliance for Jewish Education in Metropolitan Detroit where she created community-wide professional development initiatives and conducted training sessions for school directors, family educators and teachers.  Simultaneously, she was Director of their Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, where she is currently an instructor.

Aviva has worked in and presented teacher training and curriculum workshops for schools in Ann Arbor, metropolitan Detroit, Toledo, Columbus, and Charolette, NC as well as Kehillat Israel in Lansing and now at Shaaey Zedek.  She was the co-chair of the Daytime Program Committee for CAJE 2000 (Conference for Alternatives in Jewish Education).

Aviva holds a M.A. in Educational Leadership with a focus on Community Education  as well degrees in Urban Planning and Environmental Education. She is married to Mitchell Silverman and the mother of Shoshana, a Classics major at Oberlin College in Ohio.