Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University where she directs the Jewish Studies Program and is a recipient of American University’s highest faculty award, the Scholar/Teacher of the Year. She earned a doctorate in history from Ohio State University, a B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University,and studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Her latest book, America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today was called in the New York Times “a thoughtful history of a group of diverse, passionate, contemplative, vocal and dynamic women, and … a welcome addition to the American historical canon.” Her other books include Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination. She is the immediate past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, the learned society of 2,000 Jewish Studies scholars and students.