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Elaine is a Principal and regional strategy practice area leader based in the Gensler Baltimore office. She has a strong expertise in stakeholder and public engagement, visioning, and real estate strategy relative to community economic development supporting projects across the southeast region and firm. Over the course of her career, she has worked across a wide-ranging portfolio of projects, with a particular focus on the not for profit and social innovation industry. Having worked with many different types of organizations, she expertly weaves best practices and research from across the firm along with her understanding of organizational culture and mission aligned perspectives. In addition to her professional experience, Elaine has designed, hosted, and participated in multiple events and workshops around social innovation and design thinking. Active in the local social enterprise community in Baltimore, she fosters connections across organizations and identifies opportunities for partnership and collaboration. Elaine also serves as Task Force Chair for the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and always seeks to use design as a platform to create dialogue around social change. 

In addition to her professional and extra-curricular design related ventures, she loves to bring together friends and family into a number of creative collaborations, often centered around Levantine food. Elaine grew up in Oklahoma City, as a first generation Palestinian-American immigrant spending many summers shuttling back and forth to Nazareth where her very large extended family remains. In Oklahoma City, her family owned a small grocery store, specialty deli and café for 40 years focused on Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean foods and served as a magnet for all (dash) - Americans across a tri-state area. Current collaborative projects include “How to Puzzle”, content generated over four years of event-based group puzzling, “No Two Tails Alike”, an illustrated children’s book about a humpback whale named Hoot, and “Yella Sawa”, a family Instagram channel to capture the community and the impact of their family business. Yella Sawa translates to “Lets do this together!”, in Arabic and serves as a mantra for the Asal Family and anyone that becomes friends with them.