Ellen Shortill is the Senior Director of Convention and Meetings with ASHA and helps lead the team in producing the ASHA Convention and supporting all the other conferences and meetings of the Association with strategic guidance and best in class operational implementation plans. Ellen joined ASHA just 6 weeks before the 2010 ASHA Convention in Philadelphia and, from that first experience, has introduced and developed many changes to the ASHA Convention, including a dedicated and deliberate focus on attendee experience in all facets of the event. Small but impactful changes, including establishing a first time and effective overflow process for the 18,000-person event with 65 concurrent education sessions from 8 am – 6 pm daily to help wipe out a long standing attendee frustration. She has helped invigorate her team to create, offer and test creative solutions that have changed the energy of the Convention. The NetPromoter score for the ASHA Convention hasn’t been below 93% in a decade. Prior to joining ASHA, Ellen led meetings teams for several other scientific and medical non-profit associations, with events, both large and small, including Courtesy Associates, running the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and the Fuel Cell Seminar; the Optical Society of America (OSA); the American Geophysical Union (AGU); and, in ancient days, American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). Ellen originally hails from the seacoast of New Hampshire but has lived in DC for several decades. The eldest of five children, and the daughter of a nurse and a lawyer, she learned how to negotiate early, argue fine points about many issues likely to kill you or get you in legal trouble, and how to hone bossy big sister skills. Every one of those skills has been well-used and incredibly useful in her career. Ask her to tell you the Dr. Maya Angelou story.
