
Emily Hurst
Executive Director
Emily serves as Philadelphia Hebrew Public’s founding executive director, building the organizational infrastructure necessary to support the school’s mission. Beginning in 2016, she guided the Hebrew public team through a feasibility study and successful charter application before joining full-time to lead the school’s launch. Most recently, Emily was a founding member of bloom, a planning practice that partners with non-profit organizations to make a purposeful change. As the director of development for the Byerschool foundation, she spearheaded fundraising, strategic planning, and external relations to support the students, families, and teachers at the Russell Byers charter school. During her time in Guatemala City, Emily founded a social entrepreneurship program for women through the NGO Camino Seguro. She originally landed in Philadelphia as a staffer on the 2008 Obama campaign. Emily is a graduate of Bowdoin College and earned a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. She contributes actively to her community, serving in the leadership of the mental health partnerships board of directors, a regional leader providing mental health services to over 7,000 people annually. Emily lives in Philadelphia with her husband, TJ, their daughter, Poppy, and their aging dog and cat.