Meet the Team
Executive Director, Holocaust Resource and Education Center
Dr. Adara Goldberg (she/her/hers) is the Executive Director of the Holocaust Resource & Education Center and Human Rights Institute (Union, NJ). Since earning her doctorate in Holocaust History at Clark University (2012), Dr. Goldberg has held an Azrieli Foundation fellowship at Hebrew University, a Post-doc fellowship at Stockton University, and served as education director for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center. Recipient of the Marsid Foundation Prize at the 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards, Dr. Goldberg’s book, Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955 (2015), represented the first comprehensive analysis of the resettlement and integration experiences of 35,000 Holocaust survivors and their families in postwar Canada. Recent contributions include: "Making Present the Past: Canada's St. Louis Apology and Canadian Jewry's Pursuit of Justice," in Kuehne and Rein, eds., Agency and the Holocaust: Essays in Honor of Debórah Dwork (2020), and “‘He’ll make a good companion for my son:’ War Orphan Adoption in Postwar Canada,” in Kangisser Cohen and Ofer, eds., Starting Anew: The Rehabilitation of Child Survivors of the Holocaust in the Early Postwar Years (2020). She has also contributed to the publications Never Far Apart (2015) and Too Many Goodbyes: The Diaries of Susan Garfield (2019), and edited the memoir, Always Remember Who You Are (2017). Dr. Goldberg served as a consultant for the Azrieli Foundation, and is a featured historian for the Montreal Holocaust Museum virtual exhibition, Building New Lives. Her present research projects explore the phenomenon of post-genocidal familial reconstruction, and the role of national apologies in collective memory. She is currently an historian for the Canadian National Holocaust Monument Exhibit Renewal Project. At Kean University, she also teaches the undergraduate course ID 1800 Holocaust, Genocide, and Modern Humanity, and graduate courses History of the Holocaust I and II, Holocaust Genocide Research, and Jewish Survival Strategies.
Managing Assistant Director, Holocaust Resource and Education Center
Sarah Coykendall (she/her/hers) is the Managing Assistant Director of Education and Outreach at the Holocaust Resource & Education Center and the Human Rights Institute. She holds an M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2018) from Kean University, where she also teaches undergraduate courses on the Holocaust, civil rights, human rights, and justice. She earned her B.S. in History and B.A. in Anthropology (2015) from SUNY Oneonta. Sarah’s previous academic and professional experiences include attending the Leo Baeck Summer University for Jewish Studies at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin and studying German at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. She interned at the Holocaust Museum and Center for Tolerance and Education in Suffern, NY, and worked as Assistant to the Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Kean University.
Her research explores the Holocaust through the lens of third-generation (3G) Holocaust survivors and American Jewish millennial identity. A leading educator in Holocaust studies, antisemitism, human rights, and inclusion, Sarah facilitates professional development workshops for teachers, students, and community members, and frequently presents at regional and international conferences.
Sarah is a 2019 recipient of the SUNY Oneonta Alumni Association Top 30 Under 30 Award and was named a 2022 Alfred Lerner Fellow by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR). She participated in the 2023 and 2025 JFR Advanced Seminars and the 2023 JFR European Study Program. In 2024, she was invited to join the Educators in Jewish College Campus Program at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies. She is currently a Rethinking Holocaust Education Fellow with The Ghetto Fighters' House for the 2025–2026 academic year.
In addition to her educational work, Sarah is actively engaged in university initiatives. She serves as Goal Leader for the Engagement Subcommittee of the Sustainability Task Force, Advisor to the Interfaith Council, Content Area Subcommittee Lead for the Task Force on Advising, and Secretary of the NTLC Committee.
Research Assistant, Holocaust Resource and Education Center
Megan Olsen (she/her/hers) is the research assistant at the Holocaust Resource Center of Kean University, where she earned her Master (2023) in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. She received her B.A. in History and Minor in Judaic Studies (2020) from Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. Her research focuses on the international definitions of rape and sexual violence and their hindering of justice for genocidal rape women and girl survivors in the 1992-1995 Bosnian Genocide and 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She currently works as a social studies at Immaculate Heart Academy in the Township of Washington, New Jersey, where she seeks to instill an appreciation of global perspectives and empathy into her students.
"I firmly believe that Holocaust and genocide education is essential to understanding, acknowledging, and responding to today’s atrocities—genocides, wars, refugee crises, mass sexual violence, political regimes. Without a foundational understanding of the past and our irreparable mistakes as humans, we cannot better ourselves and our societies—especially for those vulnerable to violence and future generations."
Student Worker, Holocaust Resource and Education Center
Heather Gonzalez, Psychology and English
Heather uses she/her/hers pronouns.
Heather Gonzalez has been a student assistant at the Holocaust Resource Center since Fall 2021. She is currently a Psychology and English standard undergraduate at Kean University. She has worked on many opportunities in her time, and has had many opportunities to create both personal and professional growth. She is passionate about education, human rights, student advocacy, poetry, and volunteer work.
"I started working here when given an opportunity to grow as an individual, a professional, and as a student. It didn’t take long to understand all the good work we do here for our community and want to be an active participant in the process of moving our department forward and reaching broader audiences. This office is not only educational, it opens doors for cultural appreciation and understanding as well as the commemoration of the past and present. Here, I am able to be an advocate for change, education, remembrance, and an ally to all."
Student Assistant, Holocaust Resource and Education Center
Ashley Acevedo, Art Education
Ashley uses she/her/hers pronouns.
"This is my first year working with Kean University’s Holocaust Resource Center. I wanted to work with the HRC to be able to connect with others, learn about different historical events, and grow as a student, worker, and individual."