As the Assistant Dean of Student and International Programs, Elena oversees partnerships with universities in Paris, Barcelona, Chile, São Paulo, and Buenos Aires. She oversees the part-time MS program for students who live and work in the New York City area. A 1999 graduate of Columbia Journalism School, Elena was a staff reporter at Newsday and The Miami Herald and a freelance magazine writer. She has also worked as an editor at Scholastic News and a staff writer at the Ford Foundation. A longtime adjunct professor at CJS, Elena is the faculty adviser to the student chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She is a board member of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting in Latin America and the Caribbean, and she administers several post-graduate fellowships that support reporting projects around the world.