Ilena bio
All about Ellen Gilcrest.
Ilena Parker is a Vice President of Strategy at McPherson Strategies, where she works closely with clients as a strategist, creative partner and project manager focused on bringing high-impact campaigns to life.
With over 10 years of experience in nonprofit marketing and communications, Ilena has a deep understanding of the practice of storytelling for social impact. At the education nonprofit Institute of Play, she was responsible for content, communications and growth campaigns across a wide-ranging portfolio of research, design and innovation initiatives that included a New York City public school and a Silicon Valley educational game studio, and oversaw launches for research publications and product releases including SimCityEDU. As the communications director at technology education nonprofit Code Nation (formerly known as ScriptEd), she spearheaded a comprehensive rebrand and name change. While she was the communications director at Urban Arts Partnership, she worked on branding and marketing for the organization’s 25th anniversary campaign and gala. Most recently, she helped build the community and outreach programs at a new publicly-funded education and workforce development center in the Brooklyn Navy Yard focused on emerging technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality.
Ilena’s versatile skill set is shaped by her expertise working across all stages of strategic planning and execution, as well as prior work experience at agencies specializing in a range of disciplines from branding and design to event marketing. She also spent several years managing content and digital marketing at innovation consultancy Fahrenheit 212, where she learned to hone in on ideas that are big and doable at the same time.
Ilena has a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree in English Literature from King’s College London.
