Contact:
Mitchell Slepian
mslepian@hadassah.org
NEW YORK, NY: National President Rhoda Smolow and CEO Naomi Adler of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, are pleased to announce that Sharon Scalora has been named Division Co-Director, Communications, in Hadassah’s Marketing & Communications Division (MarCom) responsible for Hadassah’s national communications strategy. She will work in partnership with MarCom’s Sheryl Hoffman, Division Co-Director, Marketing, and joins Hadassah on January 3.
Like Hoffman, Scalora will report to Adler, work closely with Hadassah’s professional and volunteer leaders and be part of Hadassah’s executive management team.
As MarCom’s co-director, Scalora will collaborate with Hoffman to help build membership, philanthropic support and member participation in the national programs, initiatives and campaigns that advance Hadassah’s mission to fight antisemitism, help ensure Israel’s safety and security, foster Zionism, advocate for women’s health care rights and support the Hadassah Medical Organization, Hadassah’s medical center in Jerusalem.
Scalora will oversee a group of professionals responsible for Hadassah’s editorial strategy, copywriting for print and digital assets, social media, media and public relations, executive communications and, in partnership with colleagues in other divisions, member and donor communications. She and her team will collaborate on branding and positioning for both the organization and individual initiatives with Hoffman and her team, who manage Hadassah’s website, digital communications and strategy, creative services, advertising, video production, and a variety of special projects.
Scalora comes to Hadassah with more than 15 years of communications experience. Most recently, she served as Assistant Vice President, Internal Communications, at RWJBarnabas Health, which, with 13 hospitals, 35,000 employees and 9,000 doctors, is New Jersey’s largest academic health care system. There, Scalora built the internal communications infrastructure and function from the ground up.
Scalora’s achievements at RWJBarnabas Health include a redesign of the organization’s intranet that increased usage by over 200 percent and communications plans critical to the system’s COVID-19 response, safety and quality improvement efforts, and the success of the 2016 merger of Barnabas Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Health system.
In addition, as inaugural chairperson of RWJBarnabas Health’s Women’s Leadership Alliance, Scalora helped grow the membership to more than 300 and built a team of 30 who create opportunities that help female employees accelerate their careers.
Said CEO Adler, “National President Rhoda Smolow and I are extremely excited to have Sharon join us. We are impressed by her vast communications experience, her deep knowledge of health care and her passion for Hadassah’s work. She is the ideal person to complement the work already underway to grow Hadassah’s member and donor base so that we can continue to realize the organization’s mission.”
“I am thrilled to be joining Hadassah,” said Scalora. “This is an exciting opportunity for me to be part of a women-led organization that plays an essential role in the American Jewish community and in Israel, and that is committed to the important work of advancing women’s health and leadership, fighting antisemitism and instilling Jewish values and Jewish pride in future generations.”
Sharon Scalora earned a BA in criminal justice from George Washington University in Washington, DC, and an MA in journalism from New York University. She has received awards from Press Ganey, the health care consulting firm known for its patient surveys; the Healthcare Planning & Marketing Society of New Jersey; the New Jersey Advertising Club; and Ragan Communications, the communications powerhouse. She lives in West Orange, NJ, with her husband and youngest child.