As Creative’s Director for Knowledge Management, Sylvia Ellison is a senior international development professional with experience as a Business Development Director and in implementing education, country-wide workforce development and stabilization programs in crisis and conflict-affected countries.
At Creative, she has led collaborative learning and strategy development across the company’s divisions to support improved market positioning, implementation, thought leadership and social networking among staff for Washington, D.C., region-based volunteerism. She has directed the design and implementation of numerous programs, including activities focused on education and teacher training, employability, technology, child labor, human trafficking and youth. Her experience has included a focus on private-sector engagement, the evaluation of public education and private-sector partnerships and organizational development. Her most recent technical programming responsibilities include leading education and workforce preparation programs in Morocco, Jordan, Afghanistan and Yemen.
As a Business Development Director for the company’s Education for Development division, Sylvia led portfolio diversification efforts with DFID and EU donors. Her prior work includes online training product development for U.S.-based school district markets and serving as regional sales director at a New York-based online professional development company.
Sylvia has managed various research activities related to technology, US education, health and human services. With her avid interest in leadership development and conflict analysis, Sylvia is a trained consultant in the Tavistock approach to group relations and has consulted to and/or participated in experiential group relations conferences in the U.S. and abroad.
Sylvia holds degrees from Harvard and Hollins Universities and has lived and/or worked across various countries in Africa, LAC, Asia and Europe. She speaks fluent French and has studied German, Arabic and Spanish.