Katherine Ellena
Co-Founder

Katie is a non-profit executive and lawyer with 20+ years of experience partnering with election commissions, oversight bodies, anti-corruption commissions, tribunals, courts, and civil society in over 30 countries. She has supported electoral, legal, and judicial reforms in multiple countries, advancing landmark initiatives such as Ethiopia’s first judicial training system for electoral disputes and Ukraine’s first-ever master’s program in election dispute resolution. She was one of the first experts to publish legal guidance for countries facing election postponements during Covid-19, and has developed innovative methodologies to strengthen the autonomy and accountability of independent constitutional bodies.

Katie is a former diplomat with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, holds a master’s degree in law and bachelor’s degrees in law and philosophy from the University of Canterbury, and is admitted to the bar in New Zealand. Katie plays the drums, owns a Triumph motorcycle, and hiked two days of the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal in flip flops.