Hi, my name is Dakotta J. K. Alex or you may call me my Hebrew name, Ya’akov-Mál’akhî. I am a writer and entrepreneur born in Houston, Texas. Ethnically from India, I am of Cochin or Malabar Jewish descent.
Academically I was poised with a difficult decision when choosing what area to specialize in for higher education. I ended up choosing seminary as opposed to rabbinical school and began my masters program at the Claremont Colleges and initially attended the Claremont School of Theology near Los Angeles where I was pursing my Master’s of Divinity (M.Div). Now in San Francisco, I am finishing my M.Div course work at StarrKing in the Graduate Theological Union and UC Berkeley with a concentration in applied ethics and social ethics with certificates in Islamic and Jewish Education from the Center for Islamic Studies and Center for Jewish Studies. I also sit on the curriculum committee at Starr King, co-founded the Ethics Think Tank at the GTU, and also the Director of International Graduate Students at UC Berkeley and just finished an internship with the San Francisco Ethics Commission.
Over the past 10 years I have consulted with organizations such as the Los Angeles Times, Amgen, Disney, Microsoft, and Compaq in the US, Europe and China. I have also published articles in HR journals and four books with professional accolades from employees of Yahoo!, Intel, University of Washington, Disney, Fox, and Google. Additionally filming, producing and photographing a full-feature documentary.
Presently, I work as a consultant for start-ups helping them achieve the next level of growth, do a lot of travel research (42 countries and counting), and work as a research intern at Be’chol Lashon|Institute for Jewish Research and Community. I also do a great deal of tikkun olam in the Jewish community by running Kishur, a Jewish LGBT social group in San Francisco, organizing events for a program of the San Francisco Jewish Federation, an active member at Congregation Sherith Israel also and an active member at Congregation Emanu-El and being part of the Young Adults Leadership Committee at Congregation Emanu-El.
If you would like to reach out, you can contact me at dakotta (at) thejewsofindia.com. Please send me any people, pictures, articles, videos or any items you think I should share.