Advocate and mentor for immigrants in Canada; a founder of the Immigrant Women Work-Integrated Learning Hub; Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary

Elena is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Social Work, at the University of Calgary where she manages an initiative called Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence – a research initiative that’s purpose is to develop, implement and scale the best and most promising primary prevention practices, strategies and actions in partnership with government, systems, community leaders, and NGOs with the goal of preventing violence before it starts. After obtaining her Master’s Degree in Social Work and a Bachelor’s Degree in Financial Management, she has devoted 20 years to contribute to the non-profit and private sectors. For the last 10 years, Elena has been managing multiple large-scale research projects while conducting research on the prevention of domestic violence.

Elena is also a co-founder of Shift to Learn, an online learning platform that empowers users to acquire knowledge and capacities to create the social conditions to prevent violence and build equitable communities.

In addition, Elena is a passionate advocate and mentor for immigrants in Canada. She is a founder of the Immigrant Women Work-Integrated Learning Hub at the University of Calgary which provides work experience placements for internationally trained women from all over the world in the academic setting. As of 2022, Elena has supported 40+ immigrant women in gaining Canadian work experience and boosting their careers in a new country. In 2022, Elena co-authored and co-led the production of the bestselling book Landed: Transformative Stories of Immigrant Women in Canada which celebrates 37 stories of remarkable immigrant women in Calgary.

Elena is also actively volunteering, advising, and consulting for a range of not-for-profit organizations in the areas of research, strategy, project management, nonprofit management, e-learning design, and fund development. Elena is a passionate facilitator and speaker on the role of informal supporters in domestic violence prevention, newcomer labor market integration, work-integrated learning for immigrant women, as well as social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship within academia.