Ellie Klerlein

Managing Senior Vice President

Ellie brings nearly two decades of experience in strategic communication, digital strategy, coalition management, combating disinformation and advocacy communication to Spitfire. She loves to conquer new challenges and enjoys working with clients who are willing to experiment and try new approaches to take on society’s toughest problems. She currently works with the Ford Foundation on a groundbreaking effort to grow the field of public interest technology, which challenges how technology has been built and deployed in the past and encourages the infusion of ethics, policy and justice to any tech development. She also works with the Center for Responsible Lending on their efforts to close the racial wealth gap. Additionally, she is partnering with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on their Culture of Health Prize which honors communities who are addressing structural racism to advance health equity.

She partnered with the New Americans Campaign to provide technical assistance, storytelling, and strategic counsel to 18 markets throughout the US where organizations are working hard to encourage eligible immigrants to apply for citizenship. She also worked closely with several civil rights organizations, led by the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, to protect the 2020 Census from disinformation threats. Based on that work and academic research, Ellie wrote and designed Spitfire’s Just Truth guide for communicators to combat disinformation. She has trained several groups of graduate students and organizations on Just Truth including grantees of the Heising Simons Foundation, RWJF Culture of Health Prize Alumni, and members of the National Council of Nonprofits. Ellie has also trained numerous organizations on digital strategy and implementation, including grantees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Office of Adolescent Health and Blank Foundation, participants in Spitfire’s Executive Training Program, and local partner organizations of the United Way and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Before joining Spitfire, Ellie served as the deputy digital director at the National Council of La Raza (now UnidosUS) – the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States – where she was responsible for growing the organization’s digital presence and starting its mobile/SMS program. Ellie directed advocacy and voter engagement campaigns with UnidosUS Affiliates and the organization’s digital activist network on national campaigns to advance immigration reform, fair housing practices and health care reform.

Ellie has also worked internationally, most notably in Costa Rica and Singapore. She trained members of Costa Rica’s tourism industry to recognize and report the commercial sexual exploitation of children as part of her work with Fundación Paniamor, a prominent children’s rights organization in Costa Rica. In Singapore, she worked with the Riverkids Project, an organization that operates child trafficking prevention programs in Cambodia.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in biology, Ellie also earned her master’s degree in international development from American University. In her spare time, Ellie enjoys hiking in Shenandoah National Park which reminds her of home, the mountains of North Carolina.

Connect