Elise Henson | Director of Strategy, Ventures

As a Director of Strategy on Gary’s Ventures team, Elise leads the design, implementation and scaling of new social impact ventures. She gets inspiration and joy from building solutions directly with Colorado kids and families.

Previously, Elise served as the in-house Executive Director of MyFriendBen, a Gary venture focused on increasing access to public benefits and tax credits, leading its scale and spin-out into an independent national nonprofit. She also led Gary’s high-impact tutoring portfolio, aimed at accelerating student academic recovery following the disruptions of the pandemic, including building and piloting a program locally in Denver.

Prior to joining Gary, Elise supported education reform efforts as a national grantmaker on the Education team at Carnegie Corporation of New York; built organizations’ capacity to foster positive youth development at the national nonprofit Points of Light; and taught middle school in Nicaragua, the Marshall Islands and Nigeria.

Elise holds a Master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree from Williams College. She lives in Lakewood, Colorado with her husband and their two young children.