About Elissa
Elissa Sloan Perry has over 20 years of experience as a staff member, board member, consultant and coach with several individuals, organizations and initiatives in the areas of leadership, youth development and the arts. Past clients include Greenlining Institute, Partnership for Working Families, New York City Mission Society, Urban Habitat, National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture, and PICO California.
Elissa joined MAG in 2013 as the Program Catalyst for the Network Leadership Innovation Lab and became a Senior Consultant with MAG in 2014 and CoDirector in 2015. Elissa co-creates opportunities for learning among MAG staff and with values-aligned partners, synthesizes learning, and shepherds the sharing of learning, tools and outcomes. In addition Elissa supports MAG clients with leadership development and coaching services for individuals and teams.
In addition to her work with MAG, Elissa teaches in the MA in Leadership Program at Saint Mary’s College where she facilitates diverse, cross-sector and multi-issue learning communities in developing and implementing leadership plans and practices and recently helped establish a Social Justice concentration.
Elissa enjoys bringing together theory and real-world practice and is driven by the values of human dignity, interdependence and justice in both what she does and how she does it. She is co-author of “Doing More with More: Lessons from a Shared Leadership Initiative,” published in the Nonprofit Quarterly, “Toward ‘Complex Adaptive Philanthropy’: Preliminary Learnings from the Network Leadership Innovation Lab,” and “Leadership and Race: How to Develop Leadership that Contributes to Racial Justice.” She is also the lead author on “The Network Leadership Innovation Lab: A Practice for Social Change,” in the 2015 edition of the Handbook of Action Research.
Prior to joining MAG, Elissa was an independent consultant and spent six years with the Leadership Learning Community where she worked with organizers, funders, scholars and consultants to further the social justice field through the development, sharing and application of leadership knowledge in its many forms. Elissa has also been involved in innovative initiatives to improve education and was a Vice President for the Different Ways of Knowing arts-infused model of public education.
Elissa holds a BA in Humanities with a concentration in social change and an MFA with concentrations in teaching and ethnic literature. She is also an accredited Values & Leadership Coach. When she’s not at MAG (and even sometimes when she is!) you can find Elissa writing, dancing, exploring other art forms, and hanging out with trees.
Management Assistance Group
MAG envisions a world where the planet and all who inhabit it are treated with dignity and love and resources and power are shared in ways that enable everyone the opportunity to realize their potential and live life fully.
To advance our vision, we strengthen individuals, organizations, and networks to bring about transformative change. We also co-create the conditions in the social change sector that are necessary to make this change possible. Specifically, we:
- Provide consulting and coaching services that utilize innovative approaches;
- Design and facilitate labs, movement networks, and cross-sector systems change initiatives;
- Conduct research on critical issues faced by social change agents; and
- Work and learn collaboratively with others who care deeply about the just generating and sharing of resources and power.
In our 35-year history, we have worked with thousands of leaders, networks, grantmakers, and organizations as well as a group of incredible partners to make real change. Our team is passionate, caring, humble, and deeply committed to working with others who share our vision.
