Ellina M. Yin
I am a born and raised San Jose resident. English is my second language. I am an autodidact, with an eclectic hybrid of old and new school methodologies, brought up by Obi-Wan Kenobi like mentors in AEC Industry. I have over 10 years of marketing and business development experience from the design (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry. I am a 2019 New Leaders Council Fellow. In 2017, I was awarded an Awesome Foundation grant to launch “Pitch Please!?” a Shark Tank styled program aimed at enabling people to create change within their community. Currently, I am the Operations Director for Local Color / Exhibition District as well as a founding board member of Catalyze SV, a nonprofit aimed at creating better communities through better development that is thoughtfully led by meaningful community engagement.
I’ve always been passionate about community engagement and I believe the best designs don’t just have the end user in mind but the end user leading the design of the solution.
Fun fact: I published my first children’s book at age six.
Only in San Jose
A funny podcast that democratizes information around development projects in San Jose to inform citizens in order to create more meaningful civic engagement. This podcast will first focus on one project as its pilot: Diridon Station + Google Campus Development. A project that is set to redefine San Jose, it’s relevant not just here but in other cities facing big tech developments. There are thousands of pages of documents, meeting minutes, and plans surrounding this project that the majority of us do not have time to read. I want to create an easily digestible and enjoyable way to get informed.
A podcast isn’t new but it is a tried and true concept. Think, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, NPR, and Ted Talks BUT all about San Jose, California! It’s funny, informative, and at the end of it, it tells you all the way you can participate and create change in your local government, ground zero of where change begins.