Elena Coe Dahl

If you visit DH’s Seattle office, Elena will likely be the friendly face greeting you. She keeps the day-to-day operations of our Puget Sound hub running smoothly through front-facing and behind-the-scenes work — whether that involves preparing invoices, organizing team events and travel arrangements, or stepping in to assist on projects when needed.
Operations Manager
Systems wrangler
Bibliophile
Adventurer

Elena’s take on:

The art of organization.

To put it more simply: Elena’s here to make everyone’s job a little bit easier. Her role is one that requires her to wear many hats, and she enjoys being an advocate for her colleagues when it comes to making the workplace as supportive and collaborative as possible.

Having an answer for everything.

“Organization is key, and you should have a system that actually works for you. One of the key things for me is being a good note taker and keeping track of what’s important. I try to organize things into categories and then put notes into those categories, so as soon as somebody brings up a topic, I can go back and look at those notes.”

Communicating about health care

Elena also contributes writing to DH projects, and she’s especially passionate about taking a complex health care issue and distilling it into clean, compelling copy. She says it’s all about avoiding hypotheticals and hyperbole, and providing people with tools so that they and their loved ones can focus on recovery.

 

Elena says:

When you’re experiencing the health care system, you’re probably dealing with a lot already and don’t have enough brain power, time or money to navigate something so complicated,” Elena says. “People need specifics, and they need to talk through their individual situation a lot of the time.

So many books, so little time.

It isn’t odd to see Elena with her nose buried in a book, especially if it’s a page-turning thriller, a good memoir or nonfiction about life philosophy. She’s often in the middle of several writing projects at any given time and even has a finished book that she hopes to publish.

“The solution to a lot of injustices is going to come from imagination and creativity,” Elena says, “and I think having the skill to think of something new benefits everybody.”

When she isn’t on the hunt for a book she can’t put down, you can find Elena at a concert, memorizing the lyrics to the latest Taylor Swift album, or hiking and running with her two dogs.

Education

BA, Creative Writing
BA, Interdisciplinary Arts
Seattle University

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