Director, Communications and Storytelling, North America Region
Elysa was awarded a BA in International Area Studies and Sustainable Development from Washington University in St. Louis.
She has since then founded and led a successful boutique marketing, communications, and branding agency for 5+ years.
She joined the CPI team in 2024.
Elysa personally designed neighbourhood brands for a community-based economic development organisation that can still be seen on main streets across Washington D.C.
She also launched a programme with Girls Inc designed to support empowerment, community-building, positive body image, and eating disorder awareness.
Elysa is passionate about CPI North America’s emerging work on gender equity and support for women and children in systems. She grew up being taught that a woman could do anything she set her mind to, and said that her parents took so much care to surround her with as many women professionals as they could: her doctors, coaches, and her dentists.
As she grew older, she learned that that wasn’t necessarily true. She saw absolutely brilliant women pushed down by the systems that surrounded them- by legislation, by their colleagues, by their communities, even by their own families.
She then became involved in efforts to empower women and build peer support back in high school as a volunteer at Girls Inc, and today she actively continues to volunteer, mentor, advocate, and march to support women and girls.
CPI’s work on gender equity, particularly our work focused on gender based violence, is an opportunity for Elysa to contribute to raising awareness of one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. An estimated 736 million women, nearly 1 in 3, have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their life. Despite this, only 5% of government aid is focused on stopping violence against women and girls, and less than 0.2% is directed to preventing it. Through CPI’s work, Elysa believes that we can showcase governments who are making strides to support women and girls and shine a light on the many spaces where more work must be done.
Her upcoming projects at CPI include:
Live Broadcast: the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women: CPI is sponsoring a global virtual event and broadcast on gender-based violence on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in partnership with Peace One Day and No More. The sponsorship’s goal is to raise awareness of the issue of gender-based violence worldwide via an 8-hour virtual broadcast on the 25th and ongoing education efforts executed during 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence on social media. GBV impacts nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide, but just 5% of government aid is focused on tackling violence against women and girls, and less than 0.2% is directed to its prevention. CPI is involved in the event to feature government programs that are directed towards this issue, and to shine a light on the many spaces where government support is still needed. We believe that genuinely moving the needle on this issue requires government involvement, ranging from improving services for survivors to creating more comprehensive legislation that protects and advances rights of women and girls.
The Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES) National Center: Ninety percent of parents would seek child support if it were safe to do so. However, for survivors of domestic violence, the current child support system is often unsafe and inaccessible. Recognizing this critical issue, Colorado Department of Human Services has partnered with the Centre for Public Impact (CPI) to establish the SAVES Center. The aim is to develop and implement national best practices to transform the child support system in the U.S., making it a safer and more viable option for survivors of domestic violence.