Our Story
Co-founders Hershel Kleinberg and Lisa Cohen grew up nearly 1000 miles apart; he in Mequon, Wisconsin, and she in Poughkeepsie, New York. Though geographically distant, both Hershel and Lisa were raised in close-knit European-Jewish families who put a high value on education, both formal and experiential. Each has had the opportunity to travel widely, both in the US and internationally. These experiences added to their shared sense of a broad horizon, filled with possibilities. After connecting online in early 2017, Hershel and Lisa quickly began envisioning a shared future. Following their marriage in 2018, they embarked on the journey of launching Open Horizon in 2019.
Hershel and Lisa are both influenced by their European Jewish heritage. Their forebears immigrated to the United States to escape the horrors of persecution and war. This has influenced their commitment to support education, create a stronger civil society, and promote economic equity.
In March 2023, Open Horizon marked a significant milestone by appointing our first Executive Director, D’Lynn Jacobs. Under D’Lynn’s compassionate and people-centered leadership, the foundation has flourished. Throughout D’Lynn’s inaugural year, Open Horizon broadened its network of partners within the social sector, reaffirmed its dedication to empowering partner leaders through the now-annual Leaders Retreat, introduced affinity-based initiatives in our Leaders Network, completed a comprehensive strategic planning process, and welcomed our inaugural Director of Operations & Program Innovation. We are thrilled by our progress and eagerly anticipate further growth as we continue to expand horizons.
Team Bios
Lisa Cohen [she/her], co-founder of Open Horizon, is a coach, consultant, and facilitator with 25+ years of experience in international education and intercultural exchange. She has led the global training area for AFS Intercultural Programs based in New York and later at US Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Born in Panama, she has also lived in Argentina, Portugal, and Denmark. Since April 2020, Lisa has been the co-host of a monthly conversation on race and belonging.
Hershel Kleinberg [he/him], co-founder of Open Horizon, is the president of Kleinberg Holdings. With prior careers in law and software engineering, he brings expertise in information technology, law, and design to his work.
Hershel’s interests include photography, digital art, wine, and travel. He hopes to someday get back to performing in community theater.
D’Lynn Jacobs [she/her], the inaugural Executive Director of Open Horizon, leads with love and curiosity. She values connection with people, storytelling, and fostering community.
D’Lynn joins the family foundation after 8 years with the US Peace Corps in various leadership roles in Washington, DC, and overseas. Her experience includes coaching, facilitation, and consulting with organizations committed to cross-partisan political collaboration, anti-racism, and supporting LGBTQ+ youth.
With parents who creatively navigated inequitable systems to ensure that she and her sister had opportunities, D’Lynn is honored to partner with Open Horizon in extending the support and healing that she was fortunate to receive. She finds peace in art, reading, travel, coffee, spiders, and stargazer lilies.
Cristina (Tina) Cruz-Hubbard [she/her], Director of Transformational Leadership, is a mission-driven and values-focused strategist, leadership coach, interculturalist and equity practitioner. Her passion is cultivating environments that enable deep and transformational learning across differences and empower and inspire leaders at all levels to create equitable systems and access for all.
She has served in leadership roles since 1993 across multiple sectors including for-profit, non-profit, government and higher education, most recently serving as a senior advisor for leadership and cultural transformation and as Chief Diversity Officer for the U.S. Peace Corps where she led the strategy for advancing equity within a domestic and global portfolio encompassing 60 plus countries.
She has lived in the Philippines, Peru, Senegal and the United States as well as traveled extensively. Her inspiration and greatest teachers are her four children; she is in awe of their innate wisdom, fueled by their joy and humbled by the ways in which they navigate this complex world.
Erin O. Crosby, Ed.D. (she/her), Director of Program Innovation, is a curious meaning-maker and community designer, whose practice is shaped by history, memory, place, and interconnectedness.
She brings 20 years of experience at the intersection of education, leadership development, racial and gender equity, and collective impact to Open Horizon. Before launching her consultancy, she held roles including Director of Women’s Empowerment and Racial Justice at YWCA Greenwich; Director of Strategic Initiatives at SMU’s Budd Center where she co-designed the infrastructure for wraparound services at a PK-8 STEM school; and Director of Programming and Communications for a women’s leadership organization in Texas.
Guided by her ancestors who dreamed and labored to make the impossible a reality, Erin seeks to honor their legacy by cultivating spaces that breathe, seed, and birth belonging and balance. Joyful time with family and friends, pottery, reading, and travel are gifts she readily gives herself.
Cristina Diaz-Mateo (she/her/ella), Manager of Operations, is a results-driven strategist and systems thinker with a track record of delivering impact across government, nonprofit, and global service sectors.
Trilingual and tactically minded, Cristina brings sharp expertise in stakeholder engagement, program design, fiscal oversight, and cross-cultural operations. She’s known for always having “notes,” or suggestions for improvement wherever she goes.
Cristina is a proud South Bronx native by way of the Caribbean. She enjoys immersing herself in different cultures, having deep conversations about film, music, and politics. She notes her experiences volunteering with the U.S. Peace Corps in Vanuatu and AmeriCorps NCCC- FEMA Corps as cementing her “human-centered” approach in policy and decision making. Cristina values community and is always searching for ways to further elevate meaningful contributions to local and global society.
“Our vision is of a world where an open horizon is available to all, where access to education and economic opportunity is within reach.”
– Co-founders Hershel Kleinberg and Lisa Cohen