Ellyn Toscano

Executive Director

Hawthornden Foundation

Ellyn Toscano is the Executive Director of the Hawthornden Foundation, a U.S. foundation supporting literary arts, including a residential fellowship program in Hawthornden Castle in Scotland and Casa Ecco Lake Como in Italy. Toscano was NYU’s Senior Director for Programming, Partnerships and Community Engagement, where she directed programming partnerships at the intersection of technology, new media and the arts. Before that, Toscano was Executive Director of NYU Florence where she directed Villa La Pietra, a 15th century villa, founded and produced The Season, a summer festival in the Villa’s gardens and La Pietra Dialogues, a series of conferences and exhibitions on a wide array of cultural and political topics. Before arriving at NYU, Toscano served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Jose Serrano for two decades. A lawyer by training, Toscano earned an LLM in International Law from NYU School of Law.