Ellis Planning Associates Inc. is an established team of strategic planning, community health, evaluation, program development, and training consultants, specializing in building the capacities of organizations and individuals in the public, non-profit, philanthropic, and small business sectors. We have offices in Nevada County and clients throughout Northern California.
We believe in a highly personal and engaged approach, led by our principal consultant, Galen Ellis, MPH. With over 30 years ofexperience helping organizations thrive, Galen works closely on each project, limiting the number of consultancies we work on at one time so that yours is in the forefront of our attention. Questions are answered quickly, and scheduling is as flexible as possible.
Our services are tailored to the specific needs of our clients and we encourage high levels of input and participation from program staff and community stakeholders. We offer tools and approaches that simplify involvement and collaboration.
“Galen is an extraordinary, warm and wise talent who illuminates our community. We have many great people here, but she is a true rarity and we are blessed to have her.”
— Gary Quehl, Center for Nonprofit Leadership, Nevada County
“Numerous times I have been amazed to be part of a large group of people when Galen was facilitating, who come together with diverse points of view to end up with a common vision we agree upon, feel good about, and are inspired to take action upon. Because it is so effortless for those of us participating she makes it look seamless. Anyone who has attempted to create a common vision where each person has had input and feels good with the result knows it is not an effortless or seamless task. Galen is a master facilitator who works her magic through seeking out and acknowledging each of our voices and then guiding us through the process of finding the heart of all the random thoughts and ideas and coalescing all of it into a clear vision and then a plan of action.”
— Lori Burkart Frank, Nevada County Community Leadership Institute Facilitator
“Galen has a clear and strongly insightful understanding of the role of technical assistance, and is highly competent in both designing the substance of training programs, supporting peer learning, as well as providing oversight and administration to a large and complex project.”
— Julie Williamson, Partnership for the Public’s Health
“Galen and her team were highly professional, demonstrated a strong work ethic, and rolled with scheduling glitches and timeline crunches with aplomb. Our lead researcher commented that the training they developed and implemented was, “the most effective training of its type I’ve ever seen. I was impressed.” So are we!”
— Megan Schatz, Alameda County Homelessness Continuum of Care Council
“It was empowering and exhilarating to work as a group to develop findings and recommendations based on a rigorous analysis of the data. It was such a benefit to have someone as an evaluator who was also a natural educator and facilitator.”
— Catherine Condon, Marin County Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco Services
“We have been consistently impressed by Galen’s ability to creatively engage our staff in all levels of planning, from needs assessment to logic model evaluation planning… Not only did we actively engage with the data and each other, but we laughed a lot and had a tremendous sense of accomplishment.”
— Vicki Alexander, City of Berkeley Maternal Child Adolescent Health
