Elle is a nonprofit director, designer, writer, and editor based in California working at the intersection of the Bay Area's art, tech + community spheres, where she leads funding and media strategy for start-ups and nonprofits. Newton has taught workshops on writing, journalism and digital publishing in Texas, California, Vermont and Louisiana and her work has been featured on NPR, KPFA, Ivoh Magazine, East Bay Express, Deadnite Magazine and in the SF Chronicle. 

Newton is editor in chief and a founding editor of Poets Reading the News, a digital journal bridging poetry and journalism. It has published over 1,000 poems about current events from national poet laureates, Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and emergent writers in 25+ countries.

From 2015-2018, Newton was Writer in Residence at Babelab Gallery in Oakland, where she organized events, salons, and workshops including the large-scale exhibition Believe the Hype. 

She graduated from Mills College and University of California Los Angeles.