A year to test and build solutions to some of society's toughest problems.
Ellie has a PhD in Microbiology and worked as a Postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco prior to her transition to the charity and grant-making sector. Since 2020, she has worked in strategy and service delivery for organisations including The National Lottery Community Fund and Refugee Council. While living in San Francisco, Ellie engaged in local politics and community action, volunteering in harm reduction outreach with community heavy hitters GLIDE and St Anthony’s Foundation. Energised by the scale of homelessness in a city with some of the highest earners in the US, she questions how conscious business models address social issues currently exacerbated by the tech boom. Since returning to the UK, Ellie has provided signposting services to asylum seekers as a voluntary caseworker and while working for Refugee Council’s Infoline. She is interested in how frontline understanding informs clever design to remedy everyday system inefficiencies and frustrations.
