Ethan Ellestad
Program Associate for Community Development
Ethan Ellestad is originally from Madison, Wisconsin. Before moving to New Orleans in 2009, he lived and worked in Jamaica for three years. Ethan has been working with communities for close to fifteen years. Initially, his work centered around youth and youth programming, and he has served as a youth worker, coach, mentor, tutor, counselor, afterschool program coordinator and advocate, with a focus on narrowing achievement gaps and addressing disproportionate confinement of minority juveniles. While working with young people considered ‘at risk’, Ethan examined the root causes of the struggles these youth faced day to day and developed community-level solutions to address these issues. His passion for community development led him to a three-year stint in Peace Corps Jamaica, where he developed and ran the Ewarton Life Skills Training Centre in the town of Ewarton, St. Catherine. Upon returning to the U.S., Ethan relocated to New Orleans, where he has served as the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Lafitte Greenway and worked on several small business assistance and economic development projects in various neighborhoods. Ethan joined the staff at Foundation for Louisiana in 2011 as the Program Associate for Community Development. In this role, he is responsible for supporting grantees in efforts to increase community engagement in projects funded by the Foundation. Ethan also serves grantees in an advisory role as they seek to build capacity and expand the public benefits of their work. Ethan recently completed his coursework in the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program at the University of New Orleans. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to live music and traveling.