Our People

Rhonda Sacks

Board Member Since 2019

Rhonda Sacks was born and raised in Winnipeg.  She lived in Toronto for 10 years and has called Vancouver home for over 20 years.  She is blessed with 3 daughters and is married to native Vancouverite, David Sacks.  Together they have 5 grown daughters living in various cities around the globe.

Rhonda joined the Residential Real Estate industry almost 5 years ago with over two decades of business experience.  She began her professional career in fashion importing, fostering relationships with customers across the country & suppliers around the world.  Her passion for executive management led her to various positions in the for-profit and not-for-profit arenas including computer training, fashion merchandising and later, as the Assistant Executive Director of the JCC.  Over the past decade, Rhonda has been involved in resource development & fundraising for a variety of local & global non-profit organizations.  She recognizes that safe, secure and affordable housing is an extremely important priority in our community and looks forward to contributing her time and expertise to Tikva Housing Society.

Jeremy Berger

Board Member Since 2019

Jeremy has been involved in the real estate industry since 2012, and is currently working as a commercial property manager. He moved to Vancouver from France at a young age, and went on to complete his B.Comm from UBC, followed by the Diploma of Urban Land Economics. He has also received the RI designation from the Real Estate Institute of BC.  Jeremy has some previous board experience and is keen to apply his knowledge and passion for real estate to help provide affordable housing opportunities for the community thanks to Tikva Housing Society.

Oriana Gertsman

Board Member Since 2023

Oriana is a lifelong Vancouverite with a passion for commercial real estate. She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a Real Estate specialization from the University of British Columbia and has since developed real estate development and finance expertise. She is part of the debt financing team at Grosvenor, an international property company active in North America for over 70 years. Oriana also volunteers on the Education Outreach Committee of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Vancouver. She enjoys walking her city’s beautiful seawall and exploring Vancouver’s diverse food scene.

Andrew Charney

Board Member Since 2022

Andrew was born and raised in Toronto but has been in Vancouver for over four years now, after having lived and worked across Canada, the Netherlands and Spain. He completed his undergrad at the University of Guelph where he studied International Business and Spanish, and recently completed his MSc in Cities at the London School of Economics. He has worked for the past 11 years at CAPREIT, one of Canada’s largest housing providers, and recently moved on from CAPREIT as Associate Director of Operations, overseeing their BC residential portfolio, to Director of Asset Management, Residential, at Peterson Group. He volunteers for JFS Vancouver and loves the great outdoors.

Rory Richards

Board Member Since 2019

Rory Richards has been a dynamic force in business and public relations in Canada for nearly 20 years. With a strong background in project management and government relations, Rory has worked with a myriad of high-profile clients from project conceptualization to development to project sales and marketing.  Rory attended the Real Estate Division of the Sauder School of Business at UBC, and studied property development at Langara College and Urban Design at SFU. She is currently Vice President of Stakeholder Relations at Meridian Modular, an international company specializing in steel-frame modular construction.

Rory is a longstanding member and committed volunteer within the Jewish Community, she is an alum of the Jewish Federation Leadership program and has worked with a number of community agencies and organizations, including JFSA and Canadian Jewish Congress.

Sheila Sontz

Board Member Since 2020

Sheila brings both commercial and residential real estate expertise and a genuine interest in helping to resolve housing issues within the Jewish Community.  Educated at York University, BCIT and UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

Haley Crooks

Board Member Since 2021

Haley has an M.Ed in School Psychology from the University of British Columbia and is passionate about giving back to the community. Her keen interest in affordable housing was inspired by her passion to help the homeless. Haley is particularly interested in Tikva’s efforts to prevent homelessness.

Penny Gurstein

Board Member Since 2022

Penny is originally from Saskatchewan, and has called Vancouver home for many years. She is a Professor Emeritus and immediate past Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning, and current Director of the Housing Research Collaborative at UBC. Penny has a BA in Sociology from York University, a BA in Architecture from UBC, and a Masters and PhD in Architecture from University of California, Berkeley. Among the Boards she has served on are Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, where she was board liaison to Tikva Housing, and BC Housing. She has an adult daughter, and enjoys hiking, and doing art. She has a wealth of knowledge pertaining to non-profit housing, and is very pleased to be able to serve on the board to further Tikva’s goals.

Robyn Cooper

Board Member Since 2024

Robyn was born and raised in Vancouver. She obtained a BA in Psychology from the University of Victoria and has a Doctor of Law from Thompson Rivers University. Robyn has practiced commercial real estate for the past seven years, initially as an associate with a national law firm and currently, as Director, Legal at Peterson Group. She looks forward to using her experience to support Tikva’s mission of providing affordable housing to the community. 

Barbara Gordon

Board Member Since 2024

Barbara Gordon was born and raised in Vancouver. After completing a bachelor’s degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Barb returned to Vancouver to study architecture at UBC, and then moved on to Toronto to start her architectural career, working on non-profit housing, theaters, and commercial renovations. Wooing her husband back to Vancouver with strategic visits during cherry-blossom season, Barb worked part-time for a few years while her kids were very young, and then had the great fortune of working in UBC Infrastructure Development for 20 years, as a facilities planner, project manager, and finally as the director of Capital Planning.

Barb has spent her first year of retirement having fun traveling and making pottery, and is now at the point of wanting to be involved in something meaningful which will draw on her 35+ years of experience in architecture and facilities. She is increasingly dismayed at how her beloved “overgrown beach town” is becoming a big globally focused city that is indifferent to providing for the needs of its residents, and in particular in ensuring that housing is affordable for those who make the city function. At the same time, after enjoying a so-far mostly anti-Semitic-free lifetime, it has become abundantly clear to her over the past year that we need to take care of our own. Tikva seems like the perfect match for these concerns, and Barb looks forward to turning her still-abundant energy to the work of the organization.

Anat Gogo, Executive Director

Nick Miles, Director of Operations

Joe Anderson, Property Manager

Mary Stefanov, Tenant Relations Coordinator

Edwina Haboosheh, Finance Coordinator

Ethan Stoppi, Property Services Assistant

Celeste Flores, Program Assistant

Wei Liu, Housing Development Coordinator

Viktoria Bernard, Jewish Family Services

Acquisitions Committee

Jeremy Berger, Chair

Adi Bunim, Member

Dan Granirer, Member

Michael Grudman, Member

Penny Gurstein, Member

Kasimir Kish, Member

Michael Lipton, Member

Asset Management Committee

Jeremy Berger, Member

Sean Reisman, Member

Geoffery Rosen, Member

Finance Committee

Oriana Gertsman, Chair

Jeremy Berger, Member

Brent Davis, Member

Yahel Jarus-Hakak, Member