For Susan Rona, the new Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Mountain States Regional Director, her first month on the job was what she calls “a crash course in incident response and outreach in the community.”
During Rona’s first weeks, the ADL was involved as a resource after an antisemitic incident at a high school basketball game.
ADL also handled reports of a Denver building at Colfax and Josephine with a swastika in the top floor window.
And ADL engaged with the community on the day that Rona accepted two proclamations from the Boulder City Council, one for Holocaust Remembrance Day and another against antisemitism.
Rona, who holds a JD from Washington University School of Law, brings wide-ranging and extensive professional experience to the ADL, but she also says the work is “in my DNA.”
Her grandfather emigrated to the U.S. from Hungary in third-class steerage and came through Ellis Island when he was 18 years old. He “lived the American dream,” Rona says. In fact, he was so successful, he signed affidavits of support to bring other members of his family to the U.S. When friends saw him help his own family, they came to him with requests to bring more “cousins” to this country.
Eventually, Rona’s grandfather would sign affidavits of support for 300 people who left war-torn Europe and settled in the U.S.
“We grew up knowing that, as survivors, we had a responsibility to the Jewish people,” Rona says. “I’m proud of being Jewish and grateful that my grandfather was such a leader. What he did has informed my whole life.”
And yet, Rona says, she might never have even applied for her current position had it not been for October 7.
‘Experience in every aspect’
“As an American Jew, I have never felt as scared as I did on October 8,” Rona recalls.
Like many, that fear led her to want to do something to make a difference. She returned to the Boulder Jewish Community Center where she already had a long history (more about that in a moment) to work as a volunteer helping with programming around antisemitism and Israel education.
“I was really upset about the rise in antisemitism,” she says. “I started looking for a way I could be a resource and support in this space.”
In July 2024, when she heard that Scott Levin was retiring as the ADL Mountain States Regional Director, she sat down at her computer and opened the job description.
“I realized that I had experience in every aspect of the job description she says. “I had more depth of experience in some areas than others, but it was as if I had been working my whole career to develop skills for this job and didn’t know it.”
Rona started her career with AIG Insurance, managing a department of over 20 attorneys specializing in complex environmental claims. She continued her management experience with Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.
She spent 12 years at the Boulder JCC, first working long hours as a lay leader and volunteer for eight years and then as part of the senior executive team for four years. She co-chaired the capital campaign that helped grow the Boulder JCC from 15,000 square feet to a 52,000-square-foot facility serving more than 40,000 people annually, working with city, county, and state officials on all aspects of the project. She served the JCC in a variety of roles, including crisis communications, and finished her tenure as Interim Senior Director of Programming.
“We worked on a program with Boulder Jewish Family Service and ADL, training parents and children in ways to deal with antisemitism,” Rona recalls. “I was so impressed with the training that the ADL was doing with students, and even though I never said it out loud, I remember thinking I would like to be part of that.”
Immediately before assuming her new position with the ADL, Rona had spent five years as founder and managing director of her own consulting firm, working with nonprofit boards and staff to create comprehensive fundraising and strategic planning initiatives. She is a Certified Mediator and volunteered with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
‘We are not alone’
When Rona—the first woman to serve as the Regional Director—faced the “crash course” of her first month, she had a firm foundation and multiple resources to rely on. ADL Mountain States Region was founded in 1941 and has had remarkably few directors in its 84 years of existence. Scott Levin served as Regional Director for 14 years.
“I am proud to follow the great work Scott and his predecessors did in establishing and nurturing so many key relationships with Jewish communal partners, elected officials, law enforcement partners and nonprofit partners,” Rona says. “Those relationships, along with the support of ADL’s national office and offices around the country, are the backbone of our ability to address antisemitic and other hateful incidents, pass important legislation, and support students in K-12 schools and colleges through Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.”
Rona looks forward to deploying ADL’s vast expertise and resources to support the region and local partner organizations.
“In my first couple of months, I have already seen how empowering it is to partner with so many other organizations, including JEWISHcolorado and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) which connects us with its 40 member agencies,” Rona says. “There is no doubt that we are stronger together.”
Working with its partners, ADL Mountain States Region responded to the antisemitic actions by the coach of an opposing team at that recent high school basketball game with a Jewish high school in a way that Rona believes resulted in a thorough investigation and an educational opportunity for everyone involved.
“I get up every day inspired by ADL’s enduring mission to stop antisemitism and secure justice and fair treatment to all,” she says. “ADL is a needed resource, and I am fortunate to lead an amazing team of professionals supporting our community, educators, law enforcement, and political and thought leaders throughout the Mountain States Region.”