Ellyn Toscano is the Executive Director of Hawthornden Foundation, a U.S. foundation supporting contemporary writers and literary arts

through international residency programs in Scotland, Italy, and Brooklyn. Toscano worked for eighteen years for New York University, first as Executive Director of NYU Florence where she directed Villa La Pietra. Toscano founded and produced a summer cultural festival in the Villa’s gardens and founded and directed a yearlong series of conferences, talks, and exhibitions. She then served as Senior Director for Programming, Partnerships, and Community Engagement, fostering programming partnerships at the intersection of technology, new media, and the arts. She is co-editor of the two-volume series Women and Migration: Responses in Art and History. Toscano also served as Chief of Staff and Counsel to Congressman Jose Serrano of New York for two decades and directed his work on the Appropriations Committee. Toscano also served as Counsel to the New York State Assembly Committee on Education for nine years. Toscano currently serves on the advisory board of the John Brademas Center. She previously served on the board of Federal Hall (National Parks of Harbor Conservancy of NY), the Brooklyn Book Festival, Friends of FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano), Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (as the representative of the Brooklyn Borough President); she also served as a commissioner of New York City’s Commission on Gender Equity. A lawyer by training, Toscano earned an LLM in International Law from NYU School of Law.

NEWS

08/08/2022: Civitellians in the New Issue of “Transition”