The Team Behind Stardust Fertility Foundation

We’ve got a small but mighty team behind the scenes at Stardust Fertility Foundation, committed to helping Jewish people in the Tri-State area bring more babies into the world

Our Executive Team

Alyssa Kolatch, MD

Co-Founder / CEO
Alyssa is an advocate of all things infertility. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from NYU Stern and began her career as a Credit Research Analyst at Barclays. After realizing she wanted to spend her professional life helping people, she completed a post-baccalaureate in medical studies and is currently a 4th year medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is happily married and has 4 beautiful children.
alyssa@stardustfoundation.org
Jenn Leffell

Co-Founder / COO
Jenn’s love for helping others combined with her personal experience with fertility issues naturally led her to co-founding Stardust. She serves as a passionate fertility advocate dedicated to realizing the dreams of individuals and couples striving to build their families. Jenn hopes to make a lasting impact on the lives of others, fostering a community where everyone has access to the resources and assistance needed on their fertility journey.
jenn@stardustfoundation.org
Alex Peyser, MD

Co-Founder / Chief Medical Officer
Alex is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist at Northwell Health. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center, where she served as administrative chief resident followed by a fellowship in REI at Northwell Health. Having gone through infertility herself, she is passionate about helping others on their path to build their families.
alex@stardustfoundation.org
Dana Levinson Walker, Ph.D.

Executive Director
Dana is thrilled to join Stardust as its inaugural Executive Director, leading its next phase of growth. She previously served as COO of Urban Legend and brings two decades of experience in the Jewish nonprofit world, including leadership roles at AJC, NYU’s Bronfman Center, and Reshet Ramah.
Dana holds a Ph.D. in Education and Jewish Studies from NYU, an M.A. from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a B.Ed. from McGill University. She is also the co-founder and board chair of Baby Weight, which provides community and resources for women navigating pregnancy and neonatal loss. She lives in New York City with her husband, Josh.
dana@stardustfoundation.org

Our Board of Directors

Anate Brauer MD, MS

Board Member
Anate is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist/fertility specialist and serves as SGF New York’s IVF Director. She earned her medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. As a former fertility patient, she is passionate about helping patients achieve their family-building goals and enjoys sharing her expertise through social media channels.
anate@stardustfoundation.org
Justin Korval

Board Member
Justin is a Partner at Apollo Global Management. Since joining the firm in 2006, he has played a leading role in the creation and growth of various initiatives, including Hybrid Value and Opportunistic Credit, and currently serves on the board of directors of New Era Cap, Morton Salt, and Reddy Ice. IVF was fundamental to helping Justin and his wife create a family, and Justin is excited to help facilitate that for others through the incredible work of Stardust.
justin@stardustfoundation.org
Ben Siegel

Board Member
Ben serves as Chief Operating Officer at Dwight Capital LLC, one of the largest commercial real estate finance companies in the US. He is responsible for developing plans to realize strategic goals across the organization. Ben spent over ten years at PwC in New York and London, where he specialized in providing advisory services to a host of real estate and hospitality investors. Ben lives in New York City with his wife and two young boys.
ben@stardustfoundation.org
Ashley Gildin Spitzer

Board Member
Ashley is a fertility warrior and IVF, NICU, and surrogacy mom. She welcomed two babies in 2021, 4 months apart, after a 4-year journey that involved 5 egg retrievals, 9 embryo transfers, 2 surrogates, multiple miscarriages, and surgeries. She carried her daughter and her son was born via her wonderful gestational carrier.
ashley@stardustfoundation.org
Diana Bryk Straus, MD

Board Member
Diana is a molecular genetics pathologist at Westchester Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at New York Medical College. She received her MD from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed her residency in clinical pathology at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University. She also completed her fellowship in the Division of Personalized Genomic Medicine at Columbia University.
diana@stardustfoundation.org
Leon Treger

Board Member
Leon works in strategy and operations in tech. He and his husband were fortunate to have four children through surrogacy: one as a twin pregnancy and the other a singleton. Having grown up in a modern orthodox community, he is passionate about helping other Jewish LGBTQ couples achieve their goals of having families.
leon@stardustfoundation.org
Alexis Cirel

Board Member
Alexis is a nationally recognized thought and practice leader in field of fertility law and is set apart by her concierge level service, sophisticated work product, and compassionate approach. As a member of Governor Cuomo’s Campaign Leadership Committee, Alexis was instrumental in the passage of New York’s transformational Child-Parent Security Act, which legalized surrogacy in New York, and is now considered the model legislation of its kind. Alexis’ practice focuses on all aspects of fertility law including surrogacy, gamete donation, establishment of legal parentage, embryo disposition, and more.

Our Advisory Board

(Medical, Legal, Outreach, Financial)

Darren Bryk

Medical Advisor - Urology Medical Specialists
Dr. Darren Bryk is a urologist who specializes in male infertility. He completed Urology residency at the Cleveland Clinic and an Andrology Fellowship at the University of Virginia.
Felix Cohen

Medical Advisor - MD, FACOG, Cohen Medical Practice
Dr. Cohen is a Board-Certified Obstetrician-Gynecologist, focusing on procreational optimization, fertility evaluation and management, as well as minimally invasive surgery.
Randi Goldman

Medical Advisor - MD, Northwell Health
Dr. Goldman is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist at Northwell Health.
Avner Hershlag

Medical Advisor - MD, Stony Brook University
Dr. Hershlag is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist at Island Fertility.
Brian Levine

Medical Advisor - MD, CCRM New York
Dr. Levine is the founding partner and practice director of CCRM NY Board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist.
Michael A. Werner

Medical Advisor - MD, FACS
Michael A. Werner, MD, is a board-certified urologist, with fellowship training in male infertility and sexual dysfunction. He is an expert in the continually evolving advances in male infertility treatments and is currently the only specialist in the US offering ESSM.
Zev Williams

Medical Advisor - MD, Ph.D., Columbia University
Dr. Williams serves as the chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Madeline R. Greenblatt

Legal Advisor - Farrell Fritz, P.C.
Madeline Greenblatt is a commercial litigator who is passionate about emotionally supporting individuals through their fertility journey.
Danielle Siegal Goldman

Legal Advisor - Stein Farkas & Schwartz LLP
Danielle Siegal Goldman has a broad range of commercial litigation experience in New York’s state courts, at both the trial and appellate levels. Danielle’s practice primarily focuses on complex commercial and real estate litigation.
Brittney Sobel

Legal Advisor - The Sobel Firm, PLLC
Brittney is a family and surrogacy law attorney licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey. Brittney is also a surrogacy consultant and uses her personal experience conceiving a child through surrogacy to help guide her clients.
Arielle Spiegel

Outreach Advisor - CoFertility
Arielle is a Co-Founder, Advisor, and former CMO at Cofertility, a company that makes egg freezing and donation more accessible and ethical while helping match intended parents with egg donors. After years of infertility, she now has three miracle babies.
Joey Kolatch

Financial Advisor
Joey graduated from the New York University School Of Law. He was a commercial litigator at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison for seven years before moving on to private investing.