Ilene has extensive professional and volunteer experience in the Jewish community. Ilene conducted the first survey on the state of Jewish preschools in America (2000). She was the Coordinator of the Early Childhood Education Department at Baltimore Hebrew University and currently is adjunct faculty at Hebrew College and Baltimore Hebrew Institute. Ilene was the Director of the Early Childhood Programs at Beth El Congregation in Baltimore.  In addition, Ilene served as President of the Board of Jewish Education and the President of the Pearlstone Conference & Retreat Center. She is the author of several publications including Untapped Potential: The Status of Jewish Early Childhood Education in America (2002), Early Childhood Jewish Education “If not now, When?” (2008), and a co-author on Early Childhood Jewish Education in The International Handbook of Jewish Education (2011) and Voices of American and Israeli Early Childhood Educators on Inclusion (2016).