Hello! I am Elaina Powless. Growing up as a shy, young Indigenous bookworm, I was lucky enough to be raised on the Onondaga Nation. Attending an all-native school, learning about our culture and language, surrounded by my cousins, aunties, and grandparents who had endless stories… this all fed my curiosity and love of storytelling.
My competitive spirit was nurtured through high school athletics, where I played midfielder in soccer (all my early usernames were soccrgrrl, ofc), and middle hitter in volleyball. For college I attended Syracuse University, channeling my ambition towards getting into Newhouse School of Communications. Once accepted, I dove fully into perusing my career in Advertising, and became a MAIP intern the summer of ’14.
I’ve been working at Wieden+Kennedy NYC for 8 years and counting, starting in Media Investing and then making my way over to my goal career of Brand Strategist. I’ve been fortunate to have worked on some creatively minded brands, such as McDonald’s, Old Spice, and ABC, and have been able to tap into my love of storytelling across all.
In my down time, I visit coffeeshops and museums, walk around Brooklyn with my film camera, and read think pieces about reality tv.