Press

Press and media

For nearly forty years I have been asked to speak publicly about difficult things, often before it was comfortable for anyone to be asked.

What follows is a selection rather than a complete record, organized by subject, because a list in date order tells a reader nothing about what I am useful for.

On this page Media inquiries · What I am asked about · Selected coverage · Leadership and institutions · Television and broadcast · Resilience, faith, and public life · The longer record · Selected writing · Audio and video · Honors

Formal bio, for programs and introductions

For introductions, programs, and press. Use it as written, or cut it to fit.

Rabbi Denise L. Eger, PCC is an executive coach and leadership advisor, the founder of Eger Leadership & Advisory, and the creator of the EGER Leadership Framework™. She founded Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, one of the first LGBTQ-affirming synagogues in the country, and served as its Founding Senior Rabbi for more than thirty years. She was the first openly LGBTQ president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in its nearly 140-year history, and the first woman elected president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis. She has chaired or presided over six boards and served as interim executive director of a national nonprofit.

She holds the PCC credential from the International Coaching Federation, certification in interim ministry from the Interim Ministry Network, and two certificates in nonprofit management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She received honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (2013) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2022).

She is co-author of 7 Principles for Living Bravely, editor of Mishkan Ga’avah: Where Pride Dwells, and co-editor of Gender and Religious Leadership. She is based in Austin, Texas, where she serves on the Austin Public Safety Commission.

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What I am asked about

Executive coaching and the discipline behind it. I hold the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation, the standard by which serious coaching is measured, and I trained at Coaching 4 Clergy. I have coached chief executives, clergy, and boards for a decade.

Leadership transition and succession. Why organizations survive the hiring and come apart afterward. I am certified in interim ministry by the Interim Ministry Network and served as interim executive director of a national nonprofit.

Leaders under strain. Burnout, isolation, and the structural loneliness of the senior seat, lived for more than thirty years as a founding chief executive before it was ever a subject I taught.

Religion, ethics, civil rights and public life. What a tradition asks of its leaders when the public square is loud, and what communities do when they are frightened.

LGBTQ Jewish life, religion and sexuality more broadly, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Four decades of it, including the years when it cost something.Selected coverage

Written about ME.

Leadership and institutions

Television and broadcast

Resilience, faith, and public life

The longer record

Selected writing

Written by her. The full list is on the Writing page.

Audio and video

From the public square: the invocation at Governor Newsom’s State of the State · the Yom Hashoah commemoration · the vigil following Orlando · the groundbreaking of the AIDS Monument · the It Gets Better project.

Honors

Honorary Doctorate, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2022 · Doctor of Divinity, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, 2013 · The Forward 50 · 50 Most Influential Women Rabbis · #1 LGBT Clergy Person in America, Huffington Post · LGBT History Month Hero, Equality Forum · honored twice by the City of Los Angeles, as an LGBTQ Hero and as a Jewish Woman Trailblazer · awards from the Human Rights Campaign, A Wider Bridge, UFMCC, the City of West Hollywood, and the California State Legislature · featured in Holy Sparks, marking the first fifty years of women in the rabbinate.