Elle Ford

Elle is a public health professional and researcher who enjoys partnering with nonprofits, public agencies, and foundations to assess their capacity to make change, engage deeper with their communities, and learn from data. She is motivated by creating community-informed and sustainable social change to improve health outcomes and achieve health equity. She creates strong, authentic relationships with clients through her ability to mindfully facilitate groups, center community, and use data to tell an accurate, accessible, and grounded story.

Elle brings years of experience in the fields of maternal, child, and adolescent health, food systems, psychology, and environmental health. She began her journey doing undergraduate research for an anthropology lab looking at nutrition transition within Tanzanian populations. This sparked her love of research and public health, which led her to pursue an MPH. During her studies, she looked at food systems in the US, evaluated a school nutrition program, and focused her thesis on Indigenous women’s reproductive history and how injustices continue to negatively affect reproductive health and access to contraception. Once she gained her master’s, she moved on to work for nonprofit organizations in leadership and innovation roles seeking to address health inequities through historical knowledge and innovative, community-informed practices.

Elle offers calmness, humility, and flexibility in her work. She has expertise in data analysis, mindful facilitation, and community/stakeholder engagement. When she is using data to inform her decisions, collaborating with team members to solve problems, engaging with the community, and crafting presentations, she is happiest.