Marianna Brown Bettman is a law professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Before that she was a judge on the First District Court of Appeals of Ohio. She currently blogs extensively on the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Born in Redondo Beach, Calif., Alexia Kadish received her bachelor of science degree in Human Development from the University of California, Davis, and completed her teaching degree in elementary education from California State University, Sacramento. Alexia taught in the Sacramento City District until moving to Cincinnati in 1998. She has taught Hebrew School and Sunday School for several area congregations over the years and she currently teaches as a substitute at Rockwern Academy. Alexia has been with The American Israelite since November 2007. In addition to her duties as Copy Editor, she also coordinates with families for the Obituary section of the paper. Alexia lives in Loveland with her husband, Scott, and their three children, Zakary, Ethan and Elyse.

Zell Schulman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from the University of Kentucky in 1950.

Zell has been a writer for the American Israelite for more than 25 years. She started with Henry Seagal covering the stories and interviews assigned to her. She began her column “The Modern Jewish Cook” the year Henry passed away. This column is archived in the American Jewish Archives. She wrote for the website InterfaithFamily.com for four years and wrote a column for The International Association of Culinary Professionals Monthly, a professional bulletin.

She served as the head of the Women’s Division of Cincinnati’s United Jewish Appeal in 1960 (Formerly the Jewish Federation). She was one of The Enquirer’s Women of the Year in 1975. She was also honored as BN’AI Brith Woman of the Year.

Zell currently resides in Park Hills, Kentucky where she was married to the late Melvin L. Schulman for 50 years. She is the mother to 4 children and grandmother to 11 grandchildren.

Phyllis R. Singer, contributing columnist of “This Year in Jerusalem,” and her husband, Allen, made aliyah in 1999 and today live in Jerusalem. She works part time as an English-language editor for an outsourcing company, is active in several Jewish organizations and attends Judaic studies classes.

Singer served as editor/general manager of The American Israelite from 1983-1999 (and staff writer, copy editor and managing editor prior to becoming editor/general manager). Singer and publisher Millard Mack conceived and implemented changes that transformed the paper from a bulletin board into an award-winning Jewish community newspaper.

In addition, Singer served on the boards of numerous Jewish community organizations, including Cincinnati Hebrew Day School, Jewish Community Relations Council, Bureau of Jewish Education, Cedar Village and one of its predecessor organizations, the Orthodox Jewish Home for the Aged.

The Israelite’s Wandering Jew, is an award-winning travel writer who lives in Cincinnati, but calls the world home. An International Travel Correspondent, Janet has journeyed to all 7 continents, traveled in 130 countries, and sailed on 135 cruises. Her travel articles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the globe…from the United States to Australia, New Zealand, England, and Canada.

Janet has received a total of 38 travel-writing awards including: 3 Lowell Thomas Awards; 14 Society of American Travel Writers Awards; 18 Mark Twain Awards; State of Ohio’s Buckeye Travel Award; Henry E. Bradshaw Best of Show Award; and the Cipriani Best Overall Writer of the Year Award.

Janet is also a Travel Consultant with The Travel Authority’s Mariemont office.

Rita Tongpituk joined The American Israelite in March 2011 and serves as assistant editor in gathering national, international and Israel news, briefs, photographs and other weekly features. She also serves as on-site news reporter, writes articles and has assisted with production and advertisement design for the paper. Rita brings to The American Israelite over 15 years of experience in business administration, marketing and graphic design for large and small corporations in Chicago, Illinois. She previously served as production coordinator for The Department of University Relations’ award-winning Publications Department at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois – where she assisted in production, editing and design. More recently in Cincinnati, Rita was instrumental in redeveloping marketing materials for over 200 properties nationwide for Cassidy Turley Commercial Real Estate.

Originally born in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Rita immigrated with her family to the United States at age seven, grew up in the Midwest and graduated from Richmond High School in Richmond, Indiana. Rita attended Miami University of Oxford, Ohio – where she was on the Dean’s List and Phi Eta Sigma National Honorary – and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. She also studied Desktop Publishing at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Awarded a research grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities, Rita has also received exhibition grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and Illinois Arts Council. In 2009 Rita moved from Chicago to Cincinnati and enjoys her new community of friends.