Ellen Firestone is currently Chief Operating & Service Officer for Simon Eye Associates, the largest independent eye care provider in Delaware with over 100 staff, 20 doctors, and six locations. She has over 25 years of management and consulting experience in corporate and non-profit organizations and holds two master’s degrees, one in Business Administration and the other in Transpersonal Studies–the study of health and human potential.
After attending a Youth for Human Rights Summit with her son at UCLA in 2007, Ellen’s passion for human rights education began. She immediately went into action “to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights well known” but more than that, she enables people to do something about it with her simple and effective workshop called Human Rights: from Education to Action. For the past 10 years, Ellen has delivered workshops and lectures at schools, churches, corporations, universities, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and the United Nations Headquarters in NY. She has a growing list of human rights contacts around the globe.
Back in 1948 after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, the UN General Assembly called upon all member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions…” Ellen has taken this to heart.
Ellen serves on the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia. She is past board member of Global Education Motivators (GEM), an International NGO based at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. She has been a member of Citizen Diplomacy International, the National Constitution Center, World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO), United for Human Rights and the United Nations Association of the USA for the past 7 years.
In April 2018, Ellen received the President’s Volunteer Service Award* (PVSA) for her work with Human Rights education. In June 2018, she was inducted to the National Council of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA).
Her goal is to help create a better world by increasing understanding and inspiring others into pro-survival action.
To contact Ellen about how YOU can start EDUCATING others about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and get into ACTION yourself, email: [email protected].
* The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes, celebrates and inspires service leaders and volunteers. The goal is to encourage more individuals to embody the spirit of volunteerism that makes this country so great. Through PVSA, Americans of all ages – youth to seniors – are invited to participate and be recognized by our nation’s president for being active citizens. The award is a way to thank and honor Americans who, by example, inspired others to engage in volunteer service.
