Terrell Ellis
President & CEO, Advantage Valley, Inc.
MEGAN BEVINS
Photo by John Sibold.
WHEN CONSIDERING HER FUTURE CAREER, Advantage Valley President and CEO Terrell Ellis had one goal in mind: to help communities or people in need. After discovering the urban affairs degree while studying at Virginia Tech, it became clear that community development was the right path for her.
Ellis grew up in Falls Church, VA, and witnessed first-hand the ups and downs of entrepreneurship through her parents, who were both business owners. Her first leap into the workforce was lifeguarding at a local pool, followed by cashiering at the high-end men’ s clothing store Britches of Georgetown.
Ellis moved to West Virginia after graduating from college and, after some time helping her fiancé run his downtown Charleston restaurant, joined the Charleston Renaissance Corporation as its first executive director. She lead the organization in its efforts to improve the declining central business district, which suffered due to the opening of the Charleston Town Center Mall.
“ My job with Charleston Renaissance taught me so much, including the power of public-private partnerships to accomplish
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