Sea Change’s CEO, Ellen Mahoney, is a proud alumna of International Schools. In 2013, she founded Sea Change Mentoring and returned to International Schools to give back to the community that raised her. As a Third Culture Kid and award-winning educator with vast experience working with diverse and mobile populations, she brings a cultural fluency to the work. It is this intimate understanding coupled with her professional background that inspires trust and commitment to change among school staff and leadership.

Ellen Mahoney is an alumna of international schools and founded Sea Change Mentoring in 2013. Exploring the intersection of SEL and international education, she is the host of The Sea Change Podcast. Since 2019, she has served as a Council of International Schools (CIS) Affiliated Consultant and continues to be a frequent contributor to CIS’s wellbeing work. 

Ellen is certified in mentoring supervision by Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Work. In her previous role as a director at the national nonprofit, iMentor, she built the policies and procedures for all of its mentor management functions; recruited, screened, and trained 4,800 mentors in New York City; and aligned all program functions with evidence-based best practices. 

Ellen has contributed to major youth-mentoring publications such as the National Mentoring Partnership’s Research Agenda (2021), the E-Mentoring Supplement for the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, and has co-authored a chapter on university transitions and suicide prevention in the book, Preventing and Responding Student Suicide. She co-authored the award-winning research study, Surveying the Landscape: Common Practices, Challenges and Opportunities in International School Transitions-Care. 

She is based in Hong Kong.