2008 LEE G. RUBENSTEIN OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP AWARD RECIPIENT

Longtime friend of the Washington DCJCC, Diane is President of the Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation, vice Chair of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation and Chair of the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center.

She has spent the last forty years as staff, officer, founder or funder of many organizations serving children and families in the District of Columbia such as the Children’s National Medical Center, the Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children, DC Action for Children and the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation.

During her more than twenty-five years at the Children’s National Medical Center Diane was founder or co-founder of the Patient Representative, Quality Assurance, Child Life and New Horizons programs.  In later years, she served on the Research Board and the Board of Directors.

From 1984 to 1994 she served as Vice Chair and then Board Chair of the Reginald S. Lourie Center for Infants and Young Children.

In 1992, she co-founded DC Action for Children and served as President for over twelve years during which time she created the DC Children’s Health Care Coalition. In 1999, Diane was appointed by the Mayor to the Board of Directors of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation, where she currently serves as Vice Chair. 

Diane has served on the President’s Council of the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Advisory Board of the National Science Research Council and as Chair of the Philanthropic Section of the DC Education Compact.  She remains active in the philanthropic community by serving on several Working Groups of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and the President's Circle of the National Academy of Science.

Diane studied at Vassar College and served as President of the Vassar Club of Washington, DC from 1968-1970. She is a Vice President of the Norman Bernstein Management Company, Inc. and a General Partner of Columbia Realty Venture.

Diane is married to Norman Bernstein, and is the mother of six children and grandmother of twelve.