Elyse Burden is the co-founder of Real World Scholars, a nonprofit organization supporting real-world learning experiences for young people around the country through entrepreneurship and creative problem-solving. Since the organization was founded in 2014, Elyse has been working with educators to develop platforms for authentic learning – including EdCorps, an e-commerce platform used by 25k+ student entrepreneurs running classroom-businesses, and EdSpace, a soon-to-launch video-based teacher collaboration platform helping educators learn with and from each other. Elyse now focuses on partnerships, strategy, and r+d of new ways to empower learners – allowing her to learn from and work with a vast community of change-making schools and organizations leading the way to a more expansive and equitable education system.

Elyse is passionate about elevating the voice, role, and work of young people and providing them with enough space and grace to do work that matters  – not one day, but right now. Elyse studied Political Science and International Politics at Pepperdine University and was on the Forbes 30 under 30 list (2018). Elyse lives in San Diego, but will always call Los Angeles home.