Elise Nolan

Executive in Residence: Project Management and Professional Scrum Master Training  

Elise Nolan is a certified agile professional, registered PMP, and scrum educator with 17 years of experience in the project and product management space. She holds a BA from Bethany College, an MSIT from Robert Morris University, and a slew of professional certifications from the Project Management Institute, the Scrum Alliance, IC-Agile, Scaled Agile, and Lean Six Sigma.

While she currently heads up the Strategy and Operations function within the Global Payments and Risk org at Etsy, an online marketplace, Elise’s previous roles have given her a range of expertise in both the B2B and B2C e-commerce worlds for a range of international brands. In prior years she was an integral part of teams who developed and launched important Pittsburgh web properties such as Wesco Distribution, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, Field & Stream, and modcloth.com.

These days, clients reach out to her for expertise in strategic planning and agile development throughout the digital realm–primarily focusing on large, transformational and cross-functional initiatives in the ecommerce, web, and app development universe. Aside from standard scrum master and scrum coaching work, Elise also provides digital portfolio and program support on large-scale implementation projects.

As our EIR for the Project Management Academy, Elise leads the Scrum Master certification course, a bootcamp-style class that entails a hands-on, activity-based learning experience to help students develop and demonstrate a deep understanding of Scrum and the Agile mindset.

At the end of the program, students take the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) assessment exam.