Elena Hilton is a Vice President at Mission Partners, where she guides social impact organizations that are experiencing pivotal inflection points. Her expertise lies in developing strategies, crafting research-informed messaging, facilitating partnerships, and bringing executive thought leadership plans to life.​

Elena specializes in counseling organizations across the pro-democracy and journalism fields, primarily advising those that work to expand access to local news, protect free and fair elections, and prevent political violence.​

Since joining Mission Partners in 2019, she has overseen projects with Democracy Fund, Trusted Elections Fund, American Press Institute, NewsMatch, international peacebuilder Dr. John Paul Lederach, and more. In 2020, Elena was part of the team that organized and branded the Rebuild Local News coalition, which is now the largest alliance of local publishers and labor unions, civic organizations and newsrooms working to advance public policies designed to strengthen community news.​

In 2025, she led the communications strategy, launch, and audience engagement efforts for the Courage Calls Us campaign, which rallied funders across all sectors to move money quickly and strategically to the pro-democracy field. The campaign well-exceeded its initial goal of raising $20M and brought new funders to the democracy giving space.​

She began her career at Hearst Magazines as a member of Esquire’s editorial team. As a freelance writer, her work has been published in Glamour, NBC News, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, and InStyle, among other publications.​

Elena graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications and now resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia.