Dana Myrtenbaum

Adv. Dana Myrtenbaum is an Israeli public interest lawyer and social innovator. As the founder and director of the “City for All” Program at Itach- Ma’aki Women Lawyers for Social Justice, she currently promotes Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Equality Action plans within local governments in Israel. Since 2017, she has implemented “CIty for All” in Rishon LeZion, Taybe, Akko and Haifa.

In each locale, an ongoing multi-level process is underway towards creating and executing a City-wide Gender Equality action program. The program participants and leaders include the local Gender Equality advisor, elected city council members, high ranking city administrators, civil society organizations and members of the business and public sectors.

For 20 years, Dana has innovated programs that give voice to the needs of marginalized citizens, to Jewish and Arab women leaders. By exposing “silenced voices” and bringing them to the public arena, specifically to policy makers, Dana’s work has advanced more inclusive policies for gender equality, poverty alleviation and understanding the impact the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict has on the daily lives of women and girls.

Dana founded the Legal Leaders Program at the Haifa University Law Faculty, (2004-2014) which was later replicated nationally as a model for legal activism interfacing academia with the community. She also established The National Program for Young Women at risk (13-25) , and developed a new policy that recognizes and meets the needs of young at-risk women and men in housing regulations. The resulting policy change added $500,000 USD to the annual budget of the Israeli Ministry of Social Services (2015).

Dana received her Masters in Law from American University, Washington College of Law in 2004, and her Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2017. She is a mom to three amazing young children, ages 18, 13, and 6, and wife to Igal, a composer and musician.