Dr. Sara Shadmi-Wortman is the co-founder and CEO of The Varda International Institute for Community Building. She has devoted her professional life to helping groups and individuals live meaningfully by joining together, bringing their talents and uniqueness, and creating strong, vibrant communities that can address shared challenges. During the past 30 years she has serves as a faculty member of Oranim, the Academic College of Education of the Kibbutz Movement, and the co-founder of Shdemot, Oranim’s field department dedicated to leading processes of community building in urban, rural and peripheral regions in Israel, impacting national policy for the Israel Association for Community Centers. Previously, she established and directed a teacher training program—HOTAM "Teach First Israel"—and served as the Northern regional director of the Ministry of Education, overseeing the activities of 600 schools. She is the proud mother of four children and lives in Israel.