Education Director
Carolyn Silver-Alford

Carolyn Silver-Alford has been Education Director at Heska Amuna Religious School since 2001. “Morah Chaya” received a BA in Sociology in Family Studies from Brandeis University. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts from the Theatre Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and did doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison specializing in Drama Education.

Chaya has worked professionally as a Jewish educator in many different capacities since 1975. Among other jobs she has held as a Jewish communal professional, she worked as a first aid assistant and childcare provider in Beit Shan, was Drama Specialist at Camp Judaea in North Carolina, helped create the Sunday Shalom program in Madison, WI, and was Program Director for the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, OK prior to coming with her family to Knoxville. Chaya still works as a synagogue classroom teacher and as a bar and bat mitzvah tutor. Chaya is actively involved with exploring new opportunities for spiritual enrichment in Conservative Jewish settings and is currently completing a two-year training program in Chant Leadership with Rabbi Shefa Gold at Elat Chayyim.

For fun, Chaya sings with Tennessee Schmaltz, one of Knoxville’s professional Klezmer ensembles, swims, and spends as much time as possible with her children, Emma, Max, and Lilly and her husband Terry who is on the Theatre faculty at the University of Tennessee. Morah Chaya is committed to helping every child become a life-long Jewish learner and to helping every family discover the joys and the connections possible by living meaningful, well informed Jewish lives.