Who We Are

An Introduction to the Firm

Judith Aaron Auerbach, President

Kit Nichols, Vice President

Lida Junghans, Senior Consultant

Julie Wang, Research and Project Associate

Ellen Offner, Senior Consultant

Victoria Taranto, Director of Operations and Project Manager

Theresa Werth, Project Coordinator

Judith Aaron Auerbach, President (judith@auerbach-assc.com)

Judith Auerbach founded Auerbach Associates in 1986, after two decades in academic publishing and in law. For the past twenty years she has provided search and consulting services to universities, medical centers and other health care organizations, scholarly institutions, and not-for-profit organizations generally. At Harvard University Press she was an editor for history and the social sciences and she also served as publications consultant to the Harvard Business School, MIT Press, and the Criminal Justice Center at Harvard Law School. From 1980 to 1985 she practiced law in Boston, specializing in health care and government regulation. A graduate of Barnard College, she holds degrees in history and in law from Columbia University and Boston College Law School. Judith has led over two hundred searches at all levels and in all disciplines of the firm’s practice.

Kit Nichols, Vice President (kit@auerbach-assc.com)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Kit Nichols joined Auerbach Associates in 2004 after several years in consulting, research, and non-profit management. Prior to joining the firm, she was Senior Policy Manager at Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, a Boston-based research institute. She has also been a Project Consultant for the Center for Applied Research (CFAR), a consulting firm spun-off from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of Middlebury College, Kit holds an M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Kit leads searches in all areas of academic and not-for profit administration. Recent searches include:

Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Michigan
Executive Dean of Arts & Sciences, Rutgers University
Vice President for Enrollment Management, Rutgers University
Vice President for International Affairs, Brown University
Vice Provost for International Program, University of Virginia
Director, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, National University of Singapore
Deputy Director, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, National University of Singapore
President, Linda Hall Library for Science Engineering and Technology

Lida Junghans, Senior Consultant (lidaj@auerbach-assc.com)

Lida Junghans joined Auerbach Associates in 1999 after receiving her PhD from Harvard and now works with the firm as an important resource on selected searches. A cultural anthropologist by training, Lida has conducted ethnographic research and published on workplace culture in such diverse settings as the Chinese railway system and Boston’s teaching hospitals. As a search consultant, Lida has led successful searches for leaders for many academic and nonprofit institutions. She earned her B.A. from the College of William and Mary and received a master ’s degree in Anthropology and Regional Studies-East Asia from Harvard University before pursuing doctoral studies.

Julie Wang, Research and Project Associate (juliew@auerbach-assc.com)

Julie Wang joined the firm in 2006. Prior to joining Auerbach Associates, she spent several years with The Asia Foundation, managing international programs designed to strengthen private philanthropy, corporate responsibility, and the non-profit sector in Asia. She holds a Master’s degree in international affairs from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Ellen Offner, Senior Consultant (ellen@auerbach-assc.com)

Ellen Offner plays a leadership role in academic administration, health care, and other not-for-profit sector searches. Her search clients have included Case Western Reserve Medical School, the University of Colorado, Rutgers University, and Williams College. She was previously a Vice President at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a large health plan in Boston, and served as a senior manager in the MIT Medical Department. Ellen also works as an independent consultant specializing in strategic planning and program development. In that capacity, she has worked with Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, the preeminent tertiary hospital in Brazil, the JFK Hospital in Liberia, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Tufts Health Care Institute, and the University of Michigan. She chairs the boards of Lasell Village, a continuing care retirement community, and the Mark Morris Dance Group Dance for Parkinsons Disease program. A graduate of Barnard College, Ellen also holds an M.B.A. from Boston University in public and nonprofit management.

Victoria Taranto, Director of Operations and Project Manager (vicki@auerbach-assc.com)

Victoria Taranto oversees the administration of all search projects; maintains the database and other office systems and supervises the production assistants. She oversees both the office and financial operations of the company. Prior to joining Auerbach Associates, she spent several years at Concentric Energy Advisors as the Office and Financial Manager. Vicki holds a Marketing and Management degree from Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Theresa Werth, Project Coordinator (theresa@auerbach-assc.com)

Theresa Werth joined Auerbach Associates in 2010. She supports the consultants throughout the search process by overseeing the intake of applicant materials, preparing search materials, and helping to coordinate the search process. In addition she supports the Director of Operations with the office and financial operations of the company. Before joining Auerbach, Theresa was the executive assistant to the CEO and VP for Communications of a hybrid technology training company. She earned her BA in Business Administration from Beloit College in Beloit, WI.