The U.S. Travel Association announced today that association veteran Ellen Davis joined the organization as Executive Vice President of
Business Strategy and Industry Engagement. Davis is the first addition to the executive team since Geoff Freeman was appointed CEO in 2022.
In this new role, Davis will have responsibility for driving industry engagement, shaping the association’s event strategy, and both developing and executing a plan to generate the resources necessary to support U.S. Travel’s expanding advocacy efforts and full suite of modern association benefits.
Davis joins U.S. Travel from the Consumer Brands Association, where she built a strong community of industry CEOs, substantially grew membership and created new educational offerings – efforts which drove a 50% increase in revenue in three years.
Prior to joining Consumer Brands, Davis spent 17 years with the National Retail Federation in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating as President of the NRF Foundation, NRF’s philanthropic arm. In that role, she created programs to galvanize the industry around the importance of retail careers and entry-level talent and generated significant funding to position retail jobs as a preferred place to begin and advance a career. She is also well-known for her role in defining the official kickoff to the online holiday shopping season known as “Cyber Monday.”
Davis holds a BA in Communications from Millikin University and an Executive MBA from the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. She serves on the board of directors of Soles4Souls, an acclaimed philanthropy that turns unwanted shoes and clothing into opportunity by providing relief, creating jobs and empowering people to break the cycle of poverty. Davis resides in Arlington, Virginia with her husband and two children.
