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munity efforts. He has a passion
for traveling as well as anything car
or motorcycle related. Merrick is a
devoted husband of two years, and
he hopes the future will hopefully
bestow the honor of raising chil-
dren practicing in the Jewish faith.

ALYSSA
GORENBERG
Alyssa
Gorenberg, 24,
of Royal Oak is a
rare transplant
from Chicago.
Raised in the
Reform move-
ment, she dis-
covered her passion for the Jewish
community through NFTY and
OSRUI (Reform summer camp in
Wisconsin) at a very young age.
After attending the University
of Michigan, where she was study-
ing math, she decided to make the
move to community-building and
ended up at the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit. She works
for NEXTGen Detroit, focusing on
its Interfaith Couples initiative,
Pitch for Detroit, Latke Vodka and
everything in between. She most
recently participated in NEXTGen
Detroit’s PresenTense second
cohort, with an initiative of reimag-
ining post-college graduate engage-
ment.
Passionate about giving back, she
continues to serve as an adviser to
University of Michigan’s Delta Phi
Epsilon sorority. In her free time,
she lives and breathes Michigan
football, attends Moishe House
events, plays in The Well’s mah jong
group and can usually be spotted at
Citizen Yoga.

DR. MARLA
JAHNKE
Dr. Marla
Jahnke, 34, is
a pediatric
dermatologist
at Henry Ford
Health System
and Children’s
Hospital of
Michigan and an assistant profes-
sor in dermatology at Wayne State
University. Becoming only the sec-
ond pediatric dermatologist in the
state of Michigan at the time, she
was drawn to the field by the huge
unmet need. She cares for children
with rare genetic skin conditions,
birthmarks, rashes and skin can-
cers, among other illnesses.
After earning a B.A. in Spanish
at the University of Michigan, she
completed medical school and
dermatology residency at Wayne
State University School of Medicine,
trained in pediatrics at Children’s

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February 8 • 2018

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Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in
Kansas City, Mo., and ultimately
completed a fellowship in pediatric
dermatology at Henry Ford. She
voluntarily teaches medical train-
ees of various levels, sits on several
hospital committees, is an interna-
tional lecturer and publishes regu-
larly in her field of expertise.
Marla has a long history of help-
ing those who need help caring for
themselves. She travels extensively
doing medical missions in Latin
America, volunteers in local clin-
ics for uninsured or poorly insured
patients, helps with free skin cancer
screenings in the Detroit area, col-
lects donations for the homeless
and organizes hair donation events
for children with hair loss. Her work
with JARC is particularly impor-
tant to her, having most recently
co-chaired the Pre-Glow at the Fall
Fundraiser.
She is grateful for her wonderful
husband, Adam, incredible (and
objectively handsome) baby boy,
Asher, and extended family who
all actively participate in the local
Detroit Jewish community.

ADAM
KESSLER
After graduat-
ing as a triple
business major
from the
Kelley School
of Business
at Indiana
University,
Adam Kessler, 31, returned home
and spent five years working in the
financial leadership program at
the Ford Motor Company before
attending Wayne State University
Law School.
Now an attorney at Jaffe Raitt
Heuer & Weiss P.C., a full-service
local law firm, he has quickly built
a niche for assisting and counsel-
ing entrepreneurs and real estate
developers across the country in
the many challenges that they face
starting and growing their busi-
nesses. In addition to his core focus,
Adam has a growing practice at
Jaffe devoted to general estate plan-
ning and family law matters, where
he assists new families with the
drafting of wills and estate plans.
Outside of the office, Adam is
intensely involved in the Detroit
community. He is an active member
of the Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit board of
directors as well as the Michigan
Urban Farming Initiative in
Detroit’s North End.
He is a member of the Detroit
Institute of Arts Founder’s Junior
Council board and the Birmingham
Community House’s President’s

Advisory Council. Recently, Adam
was elected as the chairperson for
the Michigan Chapter of Imerman
Angels, a Chicago based nonprofit
that focuses on providing one-
on-one cancer support to cancer
patients across the globe.
Adam and his wife, Hannah, are
the proud parents of their newborn
daughter, Emerson Roslyn Kessler.
Following their positive experience
participating in the seven-week
prenatal program for jbabydetroit!
Adam and Hannah have now
become the presenting sponsors of
the entire program.

JACKSON
KOEPPEL
Jackson
Koeppel, 24, is
a co-founder
and execu-
tive director of
Soulardarity,
an energy
democracy
organization based in Highland
Park. Soulardarity started after
DTE repossessed more than 1,000
of Highland Park’s streetlights,
prompting residents to organize for
community-owned solar lights and
the adoption of community-owned
clean energy.
Jackson has been working on
environmental justice issues since
seeing the impacts of mountain-
top removal coal mining in West
Virginia and hydraulic fracturing in
Ohio. He believes we need concrete
alternatives to the fossil fuel econo-
my that work for communities and
that the communities most nega-
tively impacted are going to lead
the creation of those alternatives.
In addition to his work with
Soulardarity, he is a Wayne State
student, member of Resource
Generation and an avid collector of
Hawaiian shirts. You can learn more
about his work at soulardarity.com.

RABBI JEN
LADER
Rabbi Jen Lader,
31, serves as a
rabbi at Temple
Israel in West
Bloomfield.
Ordained at
HUC-JIR in
Cincinnati, Jen
is the “youth guru” at Temple Israel,
running all teen-related endeavors
and keeping up to date on the lat-
est slang for the benefit of her elder
colleagues.
From Teen Mission in Israel
to alternative spring break trips
around the world, to social justice
seminars, leadership initiatives to
youth group retreats and formal