Oh, You? - Episode 03

hello everyone and welcome to the oh you podcast hello welcome to the O youu podcast and today we have a very special guest Dean Andrews Dean how are you today I'm doing great how are you Dean I'm not even going to try and say your full title can you tell us what what your role is here so my my current uh role is now the associate director of The Office of public affairs can you say that three times fast associate director of The Office of public affairs associate director see I already I already stum this crazy can't get it right a lot of words so what does that mean what what do you do so the office of public affairs was recently created during the beginning of your tenure to to help um consolidate several departments as you know the OU has like 14 departments and the office of public affairs combines the operations of all the outward-facing you know elements of the OU so there's our our fundraising Department our OU marcom department and then the national and state advocacy um organizations and so my primary focus uh within that role is teach Coalition because that is our our biggest operation when it comes to to advocacy right now in in at the OU but I also work directly under myy and you know and any number of things I have to switch hats between fundraising marcom or political stuff okay that's a lot it's a big it's a big job um and we're going to jump into that in a second but let's rewind a little bit I'm going to ask you difficult question tell us a little bit about yourself sure I grew up in New York in in uh Brighton Beach South Brooklyn like um and also Coney Island area my father's originally from Russia so that's where we ended up we ended up in Brighton Beach and then I ended up moving to Benson Hurst and spend most of my childhood in South Brooklyn um but then after 9911 my family decided to make a big change and and I was in the middle of high school at the time and we decided to move to Nashville Tennessee so I finished high school and went to college in Middle Tennessee um and where I you know I I I was a big culture shock for me at the time must have been yeah yeah how so you were you were a high schooler yeah you had known Brooklyn yeah only Brooklyn and now you're in Nashville right yes so I I was like a a big a big fish in a small pond you know and and it was really funny to everybody known me as a New Yorker and everything and that's that was what I laid upon for a while just you know I'm from New York I'm the guy from New York but then after time you know I fell in love with Nashville the culture there the music scene there and um I ended up in high school getting involved in a band and did you get did you become a big Elvis guy is that yeah I I you know my my my brother pre his name is Presley and my family named him after Elvis PR W and he was born in Nashville so okay so wait so you you started your own band yeah so like in high school I was really into punk rock and so we I I started the band in high school and we did a few shows but it was just kind of a side project and things like that are are you still in a band no not anymore I still play guitar and bass and some other you know I make beats and stuff sometimes but these days I have I'm too busy with my family and stuff to really like focus on it but I'd love to to play whenever I can so you said so we're jumping now a little bit but you say you're too busy with your family right you just had a a nice addition to the family yes that's right my son Arlo doing he's doing great you know he's he's three and a half months old wow my little mini me you know so anytime I'm I'm not here does he have the same kind of beard yeah he's growing out his beard right now you know um but he's he's he's the the the love of my life right now I can't him and my and I have two other uh older stepsons who who are um nine and and 14 so we have a growing family and you know it's it's a great time big family yeah it's a big family it's exciting MH um okay so you end up in Nashville right playing in a punk rock band right um with your brother named for Elvis Presley right right okay somehow you made it back to New York yeah so it's a very interesting journey I would say because when I when I went to college in Tennessee my background was in like show business I I actually studied theater and stagecraft and I went to college to go to to pursue do that and then shortly and I had gotten a special recommendation to get into like a higher level stage craft course because I had a professor in high school that was connected to the school and I thought that that's where I was heading and I was going to move back to New York and join theater and be and my father has a background in theater but that um after getting into the first semester I I realized very shortly after that I this wasn't really suited for me especially stagecraft and I I ended up in that same semester took a political science course and it it changed my life I was fell in love with political science I always always love this Middle Tennessee State University and I changed my SE my major the next semester to uh political science pre-law and and and just dove into that um and so right out of college I went into I had done pre-law and I became a paralal and I was immediately working in criminal civil defense I worked in a nonprofit legal firm where was this this was right out of college this was in Nashville downtown Nashville and so I was working in the criminal courts there the juvenile courts um working on any number of with a a concer of attorneys I ended up moving back to New York and then I ended up at uh in the the legal offices of PRCA Rose where our your your predecessor Alan Fagan the legendary Alan Fagan was the chairman at the time and I you know through a series of internal moves I ended up working directly for Mr Fagan and he had just stepped down as the chairman Allan figan to this day is is one of my greatest mentors and greatest teachers and so I worked for him at PRCA for about two years until he retired and then became and he was already on the board of the OU and I was familiar with the OU from from that and then you know I was still at the law firm when he became the chair the CEO of the OU in back in I think it was 2010 and um around then and he asked me to come over to help run his office and be his executive office manager and that's what I did for until 2020 when he retired wow what's the most interesting case you ever worked on whether in the juvenile courts or working with uh at prow I don't know if you can go into details but right so well I worked at a a a small um uh nonprofit legal firm that that in Tennessee for a short time and they they had a class action law lawsuit against the state of Tennessee representing all the Medicare Medicaid recipients of the of the State Medicaid Program of of Tennessee and and it turns out that there were there was a huge mismanagement of that program where you know in a you know a lot of cases where children were not getting the services that they needed that that were you know they were supposed to be getting through their insurance whether it was Mental Health Services or health services and my job when I was working at this this law this nonprofit was was going through the case evidence and reading the testimonies of of uh the children and their their Advocates and and some of the heart-wrenching stories that they had to deal with and coding that and documenting that for this massive case that um is is uh now has changed the law in Tennessee and and helped you know get more services for the kids that need it the most it's pretty remarkable how much you've accomplished in your young career right um and your story from Brooklyn to Nashville to punk rock to you know juvenile courts and defending those who need it um I've been told that one of my greatest mistakes was not holding on to you in the office of the executive uh and letting you go work for myy right what's it like working for myy my is a right he's really fun to work for and um you know I I came into after Alan Fagan retired he he reached out to me to see if the you know I want to work on his team in the in the teach Coalition and I immediately jumped to it because I already knew my for years working at the OU and he was always like a cool fun guy you know in the office but you know I never had a chance to work with him directly you know once working on his team I realized that working for him was was was such a fun experience because of his leadership style and he gives you the the opportunity to kind of innovate and work within the parameters of what you need to do to win so you know you talked about you know your work defending young people and helping them out in in Tennessee now you're working with also young people students parents in schools do you see a link between your life's work and these pieces coming together is it just a random fluke or do you think you've found uh found these things because that's an area that that's so important to you absolutely I do I do see the Synergy and the connection there and and and especially moving into this more programmatic role before I worked at the OU it was it wasn't really I wasn't directly working in a program but seeing the mission of teach Coalition and what it does for um yiva and school students across the country and it's a it's it's an important an important field and and it it represents you know a benefit to all the people in America not just you know the Jewish people or Cloud Israel you know so I I think it's a very important thing that you know it's like if I'm helping one group of or class of people it doesn't matter who they are it's I'm making a difference in the future of our country and our society did you ever think you'd be working so intimately within the Jewish Orthodox as you put it CLA Israel work did you ever think that that's where you no no I definitely I that definitely was a A peculiar instance that that that came into my life but now it just makes so much sense growing up in New York I would say that Jewish culture Jewish people is is so part of the fabric of New York Society so it wasn't as if I I'd never been you know you know had a connection to Jewish people or Jewish culture and I think so like for me it's a very New York tradition I feel very comfortable here it's not alien to me and we feel very comfortable with you being here as well if somebody came to you right you're in the advancement Department that's part of what you do also and said Dean I want to give a million dollars to you to do whatever you want at the OU what do you see where do you see the needs I think that one thing that I think that could be expanded upon is the um intraorganizational uh like efforts of the OU to connect to other Jewish and and and secular nonprofit organizations around the country and to elevate the platform of the OU even outside of the Jewish World to the just the general population of the of of America to to you know in to synergize and to tell the story of the OU and its Mission but also to collaborate with outside organizations which we may not have done that in the past to create new you know new new opportunities for the OU and and our organization I think that would you know I I mean that's a broad idea but I think that something like that would be an amazing addition and and Synergy to what we already are trying to do when it comes to things on the national and the state level great idea you know people pass by you you pass by them in the hallways wherever you go on your travels what's something the most interesting thing about Dean we' found a lot of stuff today but right something interesting that's happened to you or something that you would want people to know about you that they they don't they may not know I just I think that you know like I'm a very eclectic person and you know I have very many different interests so for me I'm I'm most passionate about what other people are doing and like I I can I I really love to learn about the the the work that people do and and so I wouldn't call that what's interesting about me it's just what what I'm interested about others is that I have a a vast and open open book of of potentiality that you know like if somebody came up to me and said I I I love your feedback on a certain project I I I love I love to learn about new things and to grow through those things and to and to find the the the um the common the commonality between very different things is that how you approach marketing and development and teach and yeah absolutely I think that there's there's a lot of things that you can find needles in the hay stack that seem like they're unrelated that actually when you put them together you see that there's way more in common than there are different and that you can learn from both the differences and those similarities and and build from that to make something new we're going to switch it up a little bit we do what we call Rapid Fire right I'm going to throw some questions at you there are no wrong answers except for the wrong answers okay all right we're going to go you ready yeah okay if you hold a gold leaf up to the light what color does it look like oh I I'm not really I should ask I wish I could fall in my wife who's an artist she would know that with color theory um I'm just going to guess white okay among land animals what species has the largest eyes wow um bugs I would say relative to their their relative size not relative actual size and you're saying between mammals or reptiles or is that what you mean or just I didn't know I was going to be quized this is be rapid fire for you to answer the questions um I would I would say some sort of monkey some sort of like nocturnal monkey or or no an owl let me say an owl all right you the bird family is actually clo you're closer on you're closer on that which continent hosted has hosted the Olympics the most times oh um I'll give you a hint do you know where the Olympics are going to be hosted this coming summer I I haven't I haven't heard okay um what Europe you got it there we go the original you got it very important question you know we have a track on our floors right and there are these signs that you can you can do the walking Track of the OU how many laps around the OU does it take to walk a mile I believe if I remember from the sign it's either it's either two laps or 2.2 laps you're going to need to do some more walking because it's more than that oh no all right now were you here the other day for the uh OU snack day you know we have these snack days every every month we had some honey you here for the honey day I I wasn't here but I heard about it okay so there were few different flavors we want you to figure out which was the most popular ready keyme pie was pumpkin vanilla cocoa or coconut um pumpkin now it's time to turn the table you have any questions for me sure I I mean I would love to know what what your thoughts on the future of the OU is when it in terms of like where do you see the OU going in 10 15 20 years from now um in terms of as an organization whe whether it's its Mission the the formation of its departments or you know other innovations that you may see that we may have to undertake in the in the future you know I I I try not to think Beyond three to five years because it's very hard to do that um but Jim Collins writes about what he calls beags big hairy audacious goals and they have to be 30 years out if you think about the world 30 years from now what could the OU be where will the U be right so we're expanding some of our activity in Israel because we think that we look at the population the demographics a lot of Jews and a lot of activity going on over there right so I I can imagine that that's going to become even more a greater emphasis in the future one thing I will tell you is lot of what we do it's about this it's about the personal interaction and that's both internal to the office and the operations and how we do things but it's also in terms of our engagement with other people and the only way we'll be able to get the exponential growth that we see coming is by having more people join our team right and there have to be people who we get interested and get excited about doing this kind of work which is why it's so important for you to be able to share your story here because you know you didn't have the most direct path to be sitting here at the OU and now how long have you been at the OU 12 years nine years n years approaching my 10th year amazing yeah right and who knew right how many other Deans are there well there not a lot of Deans out there in the world we know but how many people like you are out there where wow I could you know make an impact like this and have this kind of influence and we have to find those people maybe we have to come recruit at your one of your collectives right creative people people people and so that's one of my Big Dreams and Visions for 10 years 20 years 30 years down the road is that we have more and more people like you that's beautiful yeah that I I can't wait to see in in the future I'll still be here I'm sure what's it like to work in a Jewish organization so I would say that it's it's similar to most organizations everybody works really hard and and focuses on their job but there's a level of commitment and passion to the mission at hand whe whether across the Departments that I you don't see very often these days especially you know the corporate or legal environment even because of that passion that people bring to their job they they they bring more care a little bit more attention to detail a little bit more you know uh bandwidth to discuss and and to learn more and to make sure they're getting things right and so that's that's one of the things that i' I've been impressed with my colleagues here certainly something that you bring is that attention to detail and that passion as well right I'm well known for these those my memos and my 20page you know document always know when my presents me something when you've written it right right yep any other things anything I didn't ask you that you want to share anybody you want to say hello to back home you know did some good shoutouts but uh um not not particularly I just I just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to and I I think it's this an exciting initiative to learn more about the the staff and the different Departments of the OU and we really I think that I I speak for the entire OU when we thank you and appreciate the the the new energy and attention that you bring to our departments and our staff music has played an important role in your life sure one of your hobbies music poetry deaf poetry slam I've had the opportunity to hear once you deliver is it something you do regularly is that is that a hobby of yours yeah so that that's that's one of my biggest passions um basically back in college I I used to go to poetry open mics and um I had a background in writing lyrics for When I was in a band and then I stopped that when I went to college but then I just I still kept writing like poetry and short pros and then I I found out about this Open Mic scene and I started going to these these events regularly and to the point where I was such a regular that when the host couldn't make it one day he asked if I could host and then that became a lifelong thing obsession with my I ended up becoming a host of my own shows running my own Collective of poets and uh for the last 11 15 years I've been performing poetry all over first in Tennessee and then in New York where I started the second Collective and hosting shows all the time so can you still do that today yes and my my fiance she also performs poetry I I recently performed poetry maybe a few a few weeks ago so I it's it's something I I have a lot of when slam poetry you you have to have some poems ready to go so I always have like a couple poems ready when I'm when I'm ready to really you have a couple poems ready to go right now yeah I had a feeling you might ask me so let's go you got something I'm ready okay so I'm word up when I say word up you say word up word up word up twist like cylindrical music crinkled round waves rustled Leaf Vortex unicorn shell mix sand castle tower Smoke Stack with bricklay moving down spiral Diamond mint drill lays my sunken in tunnels funnel upside down from masses that drips in the teardrops into my taste buds Rock thud and raindrop hip hop and wristwatch time fire mind P implosion twist tornado face crossy Milky Way ride mind nervous cestina timorous waxer dream capture bled in a nose drip and Rain ditch like a sniffling cheat snitch I don't get away twist like dreams spun in a coffee concentric round smoke rings Springs curled up twin like desperate Bell Rings fingers spun ball raay drunken down falling with love for a feeling thrown inside of fishwire rushes inside of your rigling beauty worm inside of migrain twist whiskers a meow blip slashes mix paint sticks fire pit Olive pit mind cloud and cold breath aloneness how I want to get closer in the bed of your heart Twist word up word up wow what what does that mean so each stanza and each line is a Twist is a the word twist it's it's either an image of a Twist or a metaphor for a Twist it's a Twist in the plot point or it's something that's round something that's cylindrical something that spirals so I tried to bring all these different images in that poem and show how everyone is a Twist whether it's literal metaphoric or conceptual so that's what's a meow blip exactly meow blip means nothing so it's like whiskers a meow blip what does that mean that was thrown in there just you know because it Rhymes but also to confuse the audience be like what and that's the twist in itself you know great great fascinating thank you thank [Music] you