About Kate Elstrom

Hello! My name is Kate Elstrom. I am a multimedia artist who works in areas such as photography, video editing, and design. I am currently between living in my hometown of Chicago, Illinois and Des Moines, Iowa, but I am open to calling anywhere home. I am currently a sophomore at Drake University. I am majoring in Digital Media Production.

I have covered various fields of photography like nature and fashion, my portfolio consists of music journalism and portraits. Some of my work has been featured on small, DIY music blogs such as Legends of Tomorrow and magazine publications such as Drake Mag.

In November 2020, I worked as an intern to the Director of Community Engagement at the Gene Siskel Film Center for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago through my high school’s Professional Immersion Experience, a three week internship program. During this time, I would catalog any coverage regarding the annual Black Harvest Film Festival that is hosted by the film center. I would also research and reach out to organizations we believed would be interested in promoting the films we were screening as all of our movie showings were virtual.

In December 2021, I collaborated with Armani Howard, an interdisciplinary artist from Pilsen in Chicago, also as part of a Professional Immersion Experience. Me and two other students from my high school we helped him create mural representing our school’s mission by creating figures that live in the world created. My classmates and I also wrote a poem together to accompany the piece as a summary. The piece was featured on CBS News in February 2022.

Outside of jobs in my career path, I have worked for the past two summers as a recreational leader for the Chicago Park District at Jesse White Park. There I cared for children ages 6-12, but I mainly worked with 11 & 12-year-olds.

I am the 2024- 2025 President of Order of Omega, a honorary Greek society recognizing outstanding members in fraternity and sorority life for their leadership and impact on their college campus. I was initiated in Fall 2023.

I am the 2024 Vice President Public Relations for Drake's Panhellenic Council. I manage the social media accounts as well as create marketing materials for our formal recruitment process.

I served as the 2022 -2023 Vice President Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for my Panhellenic chapter on Drake's Campus. I value creating a community of belonging not only within my sorority, but also on Drake’s campus. My role consists of sitting on committees such as Membership Development, Recruitment, Risk, and Finances while also sitting on the Executive Committee. I also oversee the Health Intervention Resource Officer (HIRO) program and getting members trained in understanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion also well as Health and Wellness.

In the future, I see myself working in either creative marketing, broadcasting, or public relations. I have a few ideas of where I would like to go with my career, however as of right now they are just ideas and I am open to wherever opportunities are presented.