Elena has worked in a staff capacity at the University of Arizona since April 2012, currently as Academic Programs Manager in the Department of Communication. Before that she worked in the Department of History as a Graduate Coordinator/Program Coordinator, Sr., spending most of her time on course scheduling/management, as well as tasks related to monitoring graduate student benchmarks, financial awards, and working closely with department leadership and the business manager on Graduate Assistant/Associate placement. Elena also worked at the School of Journalism in the realm of course scheduling/management, as well as coordinator for the Center for Border and Global Journalism. Before joining the UA, Elena worked as a Spanish/English medical interpreter, and she also worked for 18 years as a journalist, mostly as a copy editor, at the Grand Rapids Press (Michigan); Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio), and at the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily Star (Arizona). She completed an MA in Sociology from Arizona State University in December 2020.