Abby J. Leibman has been President & CEO at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger since 2011. Prior to her current tenure, Ms. Leibman had a consulting practice to assist social justice organizations, businesses, and public institutions meet the challenges of growth and change, including leadership development, managing diversity, and implementing strategies to respond to discrimination. Among her clients, Ms. Leibman worked with some of California’s most innovative organizations, including Jewish World Watch, Food Forward, L.A.’s BEST, UCLA Hillel, Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue, the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles and the Progressive Jewish Alliance (now Bend the Arc).
For over 20 years, Ms. Leibman has worked with and led some of California’s most prominent nonprofit organizations, including the California Women’s Law Center, which she co-founded and directed for 12 years. Prior to founding the California Women’s Law Center, Ms. Leibman was the Directing Attorney/Community Programs for Public Counsel, where she developed and then directed its Child Care Law Project and managed its project providing pro bono transactional assistance to nonprofit organizations. Ms. Leibman served a two-year term as one of five civilians appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to the Equity Oversight Panel for the L.A. Sheriff’s Department. Ms. Leibman directed the New Leaders Project of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, for which she developed the project’s curriculum to guide emerging leaders on making civic engagement a priority.
Ms. Leibman also has a distinguished record of community leadership including: the Board of Directors for Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, the Board of California Women Lawyers, the Court and Community Outreach Task Force of the California Judicial Council, Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles and as President of the California Children’s Council. She served as chair of the West Hollywood Human Services Commission, a member of the Los Angeles Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Child Care, a member of the Women’s Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission. Ms. Leibman has served on the Board of the Progressive Jewish Alliance and on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Commission.
Ms. Leibman served as adjunct faculty at UCLA and the Graduate School of Management at American Jewish University.
Ms. Leibman has received a number of prestigious honors, including the Hastings College of Law Alumnae of the Year, California Women Lawyer’s Faye Stender Award, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles’ Ernestine Stalhut Award, UCSD’s Top 100 Influential Alumni Award, USC Law Center’s Public Interest Advocate Award, and the So. California Employer Round Table’s Carol F. Schiller Award.
She has a J.D. from Hastings College of Law and graduated magna cum laude from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Political Science.