Staff

Alice Johnson Cain

Executive Director

The Honorable Alice Johnson Cain is Executive Director of The Moriah Fund, which advances civic engagement, education, and the rights of women and girls in the United States and globally. Alice brings more than 35 years of experience spanning public service, policymaking, and philanthropy.

In 2018, Alice was elected to the Maryland General Assembly, where she served as a Delegate. After fulfilling her central campaign promise — helping enact landmark education legislation in 2020 — she did not seek re-election. Earlier in her career, she spent two decades on Capitol Hill developing legislation to strengthen public education, work informed by her experience as a teacher and literacy volunteer. She served as chief education advisor to Rep. George Miller during his tenure as chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor and as a policy advisor to Senator Paul Simon.

Alice also spent more than a decade in senior leadership roles at nonprofits dedicated to expanding opportunity for children, including the Children's Defense Fund and Teach Plus. Through a Fulbright Fellowship, she conducted education policy research in New Zealand and later completed the Aspen Institute's Senior Congressional Staff Fellowship program.

Known for her pragmatic, nonpartisan approach, Alice has served on numerous nonprofit boards, served as a peer reviewer for federal education grants and foundation initiatives, and advised leaders across the government, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. She was appointed by two Annapolis mayors — one Democrat and one Republican — to serve on the Annapolis Education Commission. In 2026, Governor Wes Moore appointed her to a four-year term on the Maryland Commission for Women. She currently serves on the boards of the Sarbanes Center and Civics Unplugged and on the steering committee of Democracy Strategy Partners.

Don Futterman

Director, Israel

Don has worked with Moriah since 2005, leading Moriah’s efforts in Israel to strengthen civil society, human rights, liberal democracy and to promote equal opportunity in education. Don has overseen Moriah’s partnership with NGOs advocating on behalf of the Ethiopian immigrant community and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Don is also the founding Executive Director of The Israel Center for Educational Innovation (ICEI), established in 2009, the leading organization for turning around underperforming low-income elementary schools in Israel, including many with concentrations of Ethiopian-Israeli students and several in Arab communities.

Don can be heard on TLV1’s The Promised Podcast, a weekly review of politics and society in Israel, named on multiple lists as one of the leading Jewish podcasts in the world. Don has been a columnist for Haaretz and has written for The Daily Beast. Don is also the creative force behind a second podcast, Futterman’s One-Man Show, and is the author of Yaniv’s Treasure האוצר של יניב a children’s book published by Tal-Mai of Yedioth Books.
Don is married with three children and has lived in Israel since 1994.

Katie Delaney

Grants Manager

Katie Delaney, EdD, joined the Moriah Fund in May 2026 and serves as Grants Manager. Katie brings more than 12 years of experience supporting mission-driven organizations advancing social justice, education, civic engagement, and community wellness. Her work spans direct service, grant administration, nonprofit operations, and board governance, with a focus on building systems that strengthen both organizations and the communities they serve.

Prior to joining Moriah, Katie spent five years supporting aspiring first-generation college students across the country – as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Racine, Wisconsin; as a Lead Tutor of the YMCA Teen Center in Berkeley, CA; and Assistant Director of Franklin & Marshall College’s summer prep program in Lancaster, PA. Katie went on to direct a multi-million dollar, grant-funded initiative focused on women’s leadership development in community-based organizations, serving as Manager of Strategic Learning & Evaluation at Catholic Volunteer Network. Most recently, as Administrative & Operations Director at Action in Montgomery (AIM), Katie helped bring operations to scale, increasing capacity for AIM’s community organizers to lead impactful county and state-wide housing, early childhood education, and environmental campaigns. Katie’s experiences as both a grantor and grantee informs her commitment to grantmaking practices rooted in empathy, accessibility, and trust.

In May 2026, Katie completed a Doctor of Education in Organization & Leadership at the University of San Francisco, with a focus on equitable nonprofit leadership. She holds a Master of Arts in Leadership Studies from Saint Mary’s College of California and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Franklin & Marshall College.

Board of Directors

Gideon Stein

President

Gideon has served as the President of The Moriah Fund since 2019. Prior to taking the helm at Moriah, Gideon spent more than a decade founding and running both for-profit as well as non-profit organizations in the education space. In particular, Gideon was the Founder and CEO of LightSail Education, the adaptive reading platform that helps students, classrooms, and school districts significantly exceed their literacy goals. Prior to LightSail, Gideon co-founded and served as President of Future Is Now Schools, an organization focused on school turnarounds and union reform work. A leader in the national education landscape, Gideon serves on the board of Strategic Victory Fund and is the Chairman of Civic News Company.

Debra Efroymson

Debra is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Institute of Wellbeing in Bangladesh as well as co-founder and advisor to Work for a Better Bangladesh, and a committed advocate for localization, car-free cities, and the empowerment of young women. She also serves as Senior Advisor to HealthBridge Foundation of Canada, where she has worked since 1995, supporting programs across Asia and Africa on livable cities, tobacco control and the prevention of non-communicable diseases, and gender and reproductive health.

Debra is the author of Beyond Apologies: Defining and Achieving an Economics of Wellbeing and writes regularly for newspapers in Bangladesh on urban planning, transport policy, public health, and economics. She has worked closely with hundreds of international interns from the Asian University for Women and other institutions, mentoring the next generation of advocates and researchers.

Judith Lichtman

The president of the National Partnership for Women & Families until 2004, Judith currently serves as its senior advisor. Under Judith’s leadership, the National Partnership has been at the forefront of every major piece of civil rights legislation related to women and families for more than four decades. The National Partnership helped pass some of the most important legal protections for American women and families, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. In 1996, the National Partnership helped shape key provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that make it easier for women and their families to get and keep health coverage. President Clinton called Judith “a remarkable national treasure,” and Washingtonian magazine has identified her as one of Washington, DC’s most powerful women and Washingtonian of the Year in 1986. The Sara Lee Corporation awarded her the 1989 Frontrunner Award in the area of Humanities. That same year, the Women’s Bar Association named her Woman Lawyer of the Year. In 2000, Judith received the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Hubert H. Humphrey Award for her contributions to the advancement of human and civil rights.

Mary Ann Stein

Chairwoman Emerita (1943-2023)

The co-founder, and former President of The Moriah Fund for 35 years, Mary Ann served on the boards of Americans for Peace Now and the New Israel Fund, where she previously served as co-president and president, respectively.

Mary Ann was the co-founder of the Fund for Global Human Rights as well as the Israel Center for Educational Innovation. A graduate of Wellesley College and George Washington University Law Center, Mary Ann has chaired several committees, coalitions, and mayoral advisory commissions on family and children’s issues. She served on the D.C. Judicial Nominations Commission and wrote and published papers on public assistance and child welfare.