Cynthia Shapira Member of the Board of Governors

Cynthia D. Shapira is Vice President of the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation, directing the Foundation’s initiatives, and a community activist.  She currently is Chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Federation.  Ms. Shapira is on the boards and executive committees of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Jewish Federations of North America.  She serves as Chair of UIA. 
Ms. Shapira serves as a senior policy advisor to Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.  She is a trustee of Brandeis University and also serves on the boards of the Allegheny County Airport Authority (chairing the ACAA Foundation), Point Park University, and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum.  Previously Ms. Shapira served as Chair of the PA Center for Women in Politics at Chatham University and on the boards of the United Way of Allegheny County and Vibrant Pittsburgh. 
Ms. Shapira was Vice Chair of the Transition Team for PA Governor-elect Tom Wolf and currently sits on the Governor’s Advisory Board for Education and Workforce Development.  She was a commissioner of the Pennsylvania Women’s Commission under Governor Tom Corbett. Ms. Shapira was Honorary Co-Chair of Allegheny 365, an initiative to ensure access to individuals of varying abilities in Allegheny County, and was a founder of the 21 & Able initiative with the United Way to address the needs of youth with disabilities aging out of the education system.
Ms. Shapira was a management consultant for over twenty years in the non-profit and education sectors.  She holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA summa cum laude from Wellesley College.

She served as a member of the Jewish Agency Committee from 2010 and has been a member of The Jewish Agency's Board of Governors since 2011.