Advisory Committee

Shahar Brukner

Shahar Brukner is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government alum (MPP 2020).

Today, Shahar is the CEO of Impala, a startup building the data infrastructure that allows nonprofits and philanthropists to maximize their impact. While pursuing his Master's degree at HKS, Shahar started BrainGain Israel to provide scholarships for Israeli students studying at top US universities. Before this, Shahar worked with the Israeli Attorney General, focusing mostly on high-profile criminal cases and criminal law reforms.

Yael Stern

Yael Stern is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government alum (MPP 2017) and a 2016-2017 Boies fellow.

At HKS, Yael co-led 2 Israel Treks and helped spearhead an expansion of the delegation from 50 to 150 participants. Previous to this, Yael co-founded and managed 3 impact-driven ventures and she is currently the co-founder of a digital health startup.

Gur Yalon

Gur Yalon is a Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alum (MPA 2020).

Gur is from Tel-Aviv, Israel. He currently works for SolarEdge Technologies as a Corporate Development Strategist. Prior to SolarEdge, Gur worked at Bloomberg Associates as a Management Consultant. Gur holds an MPA from Princeton University and a Com-Laude B.A from IDC Herzliya. He founded and led “Bishvil Herzliya” & co-founded Act.IL, one of the most impactful forces acting in favor of Israel and against antisemitism. Gur served as an infantry commander in IDF’s EGOZ unit. He is married to Maya.

Bar Peled

Bar Peled is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government alum (MPP 2018).

Today, Bar is the director of product operations at Snyk, a cyber security unicorn based in Boston and Tel Aviv. Post-graduation, Bar worked for BCG, where she focused on driving ambitious growth and solving core issues for tech firms, government, and multinational companies. Bar graduated with a joint degree in Law and History from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Previously, she worked as a lawyer, focusing on commercial litigation, as a senior media strategist, a spokesperson for the leader of the Israeli opposition and chairwoman of the Labor party, as well as led several political campaigns.

Gal Lin

Gal Lin is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government alum (MPP 2017) and a 2016-2017 Boies fellow.

As an HKS student, Gal was involved in the leadership of the Israeli and Jewish student groups. In that role, Gal helped organize three student delegations to Israel, bringing 250 future global leaders to experience Israel first hand between 2016-2017. Gal also established the annual holocaust memorial event at HKS, and expanded collaboration between the HKS Israel Caucus and over 20 other student groups on campus highlighting shared cultural values and policy challenges.

Gal is a co-founder at a digital health startup, together with Yael Stern (BrainGain Israel board member and HKS MPP 2017). Prior to that, Gal was the COO of the Israeli AgTech trailblazer eggXYt and the co-founder of three ventures.

Itay Weiss

Itay Weiss is a Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy alum (MPP 2019).

Itay worked for seven years in the private and public sectors, both in the U.S. and Israel. Currently, he is an Incident Manager at TikTok, where he is making the platform a safer place.

In his time at McCourt, Itay brought over 100 future leaders to Israel with the support of itrek. And he co-founded the Georgetown Tech Policy Initiative - the first technology policy student-led organization at the University.