Educational History of Emma Mayerson

Activist Emma Mayerson has a rich educational history, which has inspired much of her work with literacy and education for girls. Growing up in Berkeley, CA, Emma Mayerson attended Tehiyah Day School in El Cerrito, where she spearheaded multiple initiatives to partner students and improve reading and writing skills. Emma Mayerson then attended Berkeley High School. During this time, she worked with the Jewish Coalition for Literacy, and received a Youth Leadership Award from the Youth Leadership Institute in San Francisco for her literacy work.

Emma Mayerson left the Bay Area for college. She attended Tufts University, located on the border of Medford and Somerville in Eastern Massachusetts. At Tufts, Emma Mayerson majored in American Studies. She graduated cum laude, and received the Ted Shapiro Outstanding Senior Thesis Award, and was inducted into the Honos Civicus Society for her achievement in community service.

As a result of her educational history and the encouragement of her family, Emma Mayerson has built much of her community organizing efforts around literacy and educational opportunities. As a teenager, she helped her fellow classmates improve their reading and writing skills through the creation of a pen pal program. Emma Mayerson also created the Generations program at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy, which fostered relationships between Jewish youth and elders through reading lessons and literacy activities. Emma Mayerson also started the Jewish Youth Foundation Teen Board, which taught twenty Bay Area teenagers about philanthropy and the importance of giving back to the community.

Now as Program Director of the Alliance for Girls, Emma Mayerson uses educational resources to bring together multiple girls’ groups from throughout the Bay Area. Through lecture series, networking events, and activist conferences, Emma Mayerson helps programs learn about the importance of funding girls’ causes, and the most effective methods of doing so. Many of these organizations focus on educational access for young girls in the Bay Area.

The Next Generation of the Mayerson Family: Emma Mayerson

The Berkeley, CA based Mayerson family has fostered three generations of social justice activists. Emma Mayerson, the youngest of the family, has inherited the legacy of contributing to community building for both the Jewish community and social justice causes in general, and has gladly taken up community service commitments for many years.

Emma Mayerson’s grandparents Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson started the Mayerson Family Foundations, which funds initiatives to improve the Jewish community around the world, provide inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities, fight for social justice, and encourage all forms of civic engagement. Most recently, Emma Mayerson’s grandparents funded the creation of an accessible park in Israel, designed to provide a space for youth and adults with disabilities to enjoy nature and serve as a prototype for the construction of similarly inclusive parks in the future.

The parents of Emma Mayerson, Allan and Arlene, are also heavily involved in social justice work. Emma Mayerson’s father works extensively with at-risk youth in a number of capacities, and her mother was one of the primary legal counselors in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as a participant in the disabilities rights movement in the United States.

As a result of her family’s influence, Emma Mayerson has been heavily involved in the pursuit of social change since she was a young teenager and volunteering at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy in San Francisco. In more recent years, Emma Mayerson has worked for a number of causes. While attending Tufts University, Emma Mayerson worked with janitors to obtain better working conditions and wages. She has also worked with the Women’s Foundation of California, the Jewish Funds for Change (now Bend the Arc), and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma Counties. Emma Mayerson is presently the Program Director for Alliance for Girls.

Family Inspires Emma Mayerson

Emma Mayerson is the Program Director of Bay Area based program Alliance for Girls, which links local groups to create a unified voice for the advancement and improvement of girls lives in California. A long time organizer, she has worked on initiatives involving literacy, community building, and labor rights, in addition to consistently working with groups aiming to improve the lives of girls and women. But where did Emma Mayerson find the inspiration to devote her life to improving the lives of others? She says her family was a huge influence in her decision to take leadership roles in community organizing and development.

Growing up in Berkeley, CA, Emma Mayerson was exposed from an early age to the Bay Area’s penchant for community organizing. Her family in particular was very involved in community building. Emma Mayerson’s father has made a career out of working with at-risk youth, and her mother is a lawyer who focuses on disability rights. In addition, her grandfather’s foundation, the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, funded the creation of an accessible park in Northern Israel designed for use by adults and children with physical disabilities.

Emma Mayerson also found inspiration from her grandfather in terms of bridging gaps between generations. Realizing how much younger generations can learn from community elders, Emma Mayerson initiated a program through the Jewish Coalition for Literacy in San Francisco that linked Jewish elders and youth to provide reading lessons and build relationships across age lines. In her activist work since then, Emma Mayerson has focused on bridging gaps. At Tufts University, Emma Mayerson helped form an alliance between janitors and students to lobby for labor improvements, and is today the Program Director of Alliance for Girls. As Program Director, Emma Mayerson uses her experience in building relationships to bring together an assortment of girls’ organizations, ranging from outdoor adventure activities to health care providers. 

Emma Mayerson Has a Long History of Activist Work

Emma Mayerson got her community service start at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy in Berkeley, CA. As a junior high school student, Emma Mayerson volunteered with the Jewish Coalition for Literacy, tutoring kindergarten students in reading. Deciding to take more of a leadership role, Emma Mayerson elected to start a pen pal program at her school, in which junior high students were matched up with elementary school buddies, and exchanged letters over the summer to foster writing skills.

Emma Mayerson also started the Generations program at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy. In this program, based on a similar initiative started in Cincinnati, Jewish elders were matched with youth to facilitate community among age groups while also improving literacy skills. Emma Mayerson received the Youth Leadership Award from the Youth Leadership Institute in San Francisco for her pursuit of literacy improvement in her community.

In college at Tufts University, Emma Mayerson helped form the Jumbo Janitor Alliance. This student organization worked to create an alliance between Tufts students and janitors to demand better pay and other labor concerns for the janitorial staff at Tufts. Emma Mayerson was inducted into the Honos Civicus Society for her involvement in community building and service at Tufts.

After graduation, Emma Mayerson moved back to the Bay Area, where she has been working as the Program Director for Alliance for Girls, a new organization that connects local groups in pursuit of the improvement of girls’ lives in California. Other organizations that Emma Mayerson has worked with include Bend the Arc (previously known as Jewish Funds for Justice), the Impact Grants Initiative Board at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Eva Gunther Foundation, and the Women’s Foundation of California. Emma Mayerson has held positions such as community organizing resident, development assistant, and board member at a multitude of organizations.