Ensuring smooth day-to-day activity at Stix House and events that go off without a hitch, Danielle Ellis’s role as operations manager is integral to the Gephardt Institute. She joined the team in July 2022 and leads the institute’s business operations, building operations, and events.
Ellis is a St. Louis native, whose parents moved to the city to attend WashU and obtain their graduate degrees. She attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she majored in History and minored in Political Science. After graduating, she worked for the Princeton Review’s Delmar office in operations management for five years. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Ellis was looking for a fresh start and began checking WashU’s job postings, where she came upon her current position opening at Gephardt.
Ellis was drawn to the opportunity to work with WashU students and help them pursue projects they are passionate about.
“In the role [with the Princeton Review], you’re working with students who are very stressed because they’re going through the process of college admissions,” she said. “And while it’s cool to help them achieve their goals in terms of test scores, I like working here [Gephardt] better because we’re helping them achieve their goals; we get to really facilitate them in going after what they love.” Alongside this, Ellis was also hopeful this job would further expand her knowledge of St. Louis and what community engagement can look like in this city.
One of her favorite parts about working at Gephardt is working with the rest of the office staff.
“I really love our team. I really think we were pretty quick to build connections with one another and become very collaborative,” she said. “When someone needs help with something, whether it’s a brainstorming session, or more practical, people always have your back and work together.”
Ellis has enjoyed getting to see the institute’s vision come to life through events. She finds that seeing an event come to fruition makes the navigation of complex logistics and planning very worthwhile. Last semester’s “Party at the Polls” is one of her personal favorites, and she was happy to see so many in the community come to learn about and vote in the Midterm Elections.
Currently, Ellis is working on standardizing the Institute’s communication and event resources. These plans included building programs from the bottom up and strengthening Stix House’s relationship with students. With the success of these efforts, Ellis hopes the institute is able to reach more and more students.
When she’s not at work, Ellis spends much of her time walking around Forest Park with her dog, Sophie, as well as visiting the St. Louis Art Museum. She’s been expanding her culinary horizons and trying out different restaurants around the city. Her favorite past times also include keeping up with local sports, having been a long-time Cardinals and Blues fans with her family.