As a daughter of South Korean immigrants growing up in a third culture, Elyse has always been drawn to explore her sense of belonging. Whether it's living in the Balearic Islands barefoot amongst her bohemian friends, or helping shape the consciousness and culture of technology in the heartbeat of San Francisco and Nairobi — she loves to weave between different cultures, communities, and cosmologies.

Feeling both apart from nowhere and everywhere, the thread of belonging always felt most resonant through the heartbeat of creativity. Amongst her travels she's been deeply inspired by the old-world charm and traditional heritage techniques of untouched corners of the world — especially in Sumba, Mongolia, India, and Japan.

To Elyse, art is not just an aesthetic but a deep state of being — where Beauty stirs a shift in her awareness so deeply that it moves her further into the mysteries of her heart. This eponymous project, Elyse, is a design studio and curated collection of treasures supporting artisanal communities and artists she meets along her travels that inspire this type of state.

In her day-to-day, Elyse is the Chief of Staff to The Space Between, a fund centered on reimagining the systems that govern human life — business, education, time, land, money, healing. She is also co-founder of namuna, a 501(c)(3) church uplifting the most impactful wisdom keepers, communities, and sacred sites shaping the transformation of global consciousness. Before her current roles, Elyse spent over a decade specializing in social impact, and freelanced as an interior designer.

Elyse graduated from Emory University with a degree in Political Science, magna cum laude. She was a Fellow of Effective Philanthropy at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

As a student of Vipassana and the Cha Dao traditions, mindfulness, harmony, and ritual influence the way she moves through the world.