Nena Ellis leads marketing and communication efforts for Invent Penn State, the university’s strategic initiative to drive innovation, economic development, and student career success in Pennsylvania and beyond. Throughout her 30-year marketing and publishing career Ms. Ellis has assisted companies and nonprofit organizations locally, nationally, and internationally in achieving their revenue goals, while fulfilling their missions responsibly. Her work has been integral to the successful development of numerous brands, from tech startups to consumer brands, including the snowboard and action sports brand AIRWALK, where she led international marketing, and Sheetz, where she was head of public relations and a member of the brand team that rebranded Sheetz as a “convenience restaurant”. Ellis owned a marketing consultancy, GO! Marketing & PR, for more than a decade, providing branding and communications strategy for dozens of regional brands, including two of Penn State’s successful biotech startups, Salimetrics and Indigo BioSciences. Ms. Ellis’s strategic approach is characterized by thoughtful brand marketing strategies, creative storytelling, and use of specialized vendor networks to deliver engaging communications, customer-centered tools and training, and public relations events and campaigns that break through media clutter.