Ilina ewen

Ilina Ewen is a writer, advocate, and purpose-driven leader who believes in the power of using your voice, especially when it’s used to stand up for children, equity, and justice. She grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, a place that gave her deep roots and a complicated sense of identity as a brown girl in the South. Ilina is a proud alumna of the University of Virginia and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She spent over two decades in Raleigh, North Carolina, raising two sons, renovating historic homes, blogging at Dirt & Noise, and turning her accidental activism into a lifelong calling.

 

Ilina’s work spans corporate, nonprofit, and government spaces, from launching her own brand strategy consultancy to serving as Chief of Staff to North Carolina’s First Lady, and leading corporate social responsibility, communications, and community engagement at high profile organizations. She’s traveled to Uganda and Capitol Hill with the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life program to champion vaccine access, and has been recognized as one of the top working mom bloggers in the country. Her writing is honest, grounded, and often irreverent, weaving opining with political commentary in ways that resonate across wide audiences.

 

Ilina and her husband are about to embark on a new adventure when they move to San Antonio, Texas, where she’s excited to work with her new Congressman, who also happens to be a fellow Wahoo. At Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics, she drives advocacy efforts to elevate children’s health in policy, partnering with faculty, trainees, and community leaders to ensure pediatric issues are heard loud and clear where decisions are made. Whether she’s drafting talking points for members of Congress or organizing a Broadway talkback on child health advocacy, Ilina brings creativity, conviction, and a belief in the power of connection.

 

Ilina finds joy in words and averages reading over a book a week. She is a doting mom to two sons, one a recent college graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and one entering his junior year at the University of Oregon. She credits her dad for sparking the fire in her when he gave her a book at age 12 called “How To Be an Assertive Woman.” He might have grown to regret that decision.