Kristina Ellis

Prior to joining C3, Kristina worked as Manager of Foundation Partnerships for the MarcoPolo Education Foundation and MCI. At MarcoPolo, she managed grant programs totaling over $2.5 million with a consortium of seven major education organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Reading Association, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Council of Teachers of English, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, National Council on Economic Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Geographic Society.

Kristina worked directly with the executive leadership of each organization to establish program criteria, develop a standard set of consortium membership criteria, and define quantitative measures of success. Under Kristina’s management, the members of the MarcoPolo Consortium created a premier collection of comprehensive, standards-based, interactive content for K-12 teachers and classrooms, effectively doubling the productivity of each program in each year of her tenure.

Prior to MarcoPolo, Kristina held the senior staff position at the 21st Century Teachers Network (21CT), a non-profit organization of technology-proficient teacher mentors. At 21CT, Kristina managed program development and grant-writing efforts and oversaw the day-to-day operations of the online resource database and website. Kristina worked closely with the 21CT Steering Committee, made up of leaders from major education organizations including NEA and AFT, National School Boards Association, and ISTE, to establish program guidelines and outreach efforts for the network.

Early in her career, Kristina taught elementary school in the District of Columbia for eight years, where she served as grade level chair, received outstanding teacher ratings in each year of her tenure, and received her school's Home and School Association Teacher of the Year Award in 1996.

Kristina currently resides in Maryland with her husband and two children.