Since joining PMI in May 2024, Elsa (Yunkai) Hsu has made an immediate and inspiring impact on the Pro-fessional Development team. Stepping into her volunteer role as Project Manager for the Project Man-agement Tool Academy, Elsa quickly became a driving force behind innovative programming. Her journey began at the AZ PM Summit 2024, where after learning more about Project Management, she realized there was an opportunity to get involved and signed up for the speaker team to learn more about project management and to connect with experts in the field. Elsa participated on a panel as part of the day’s Key-note to bring in her project management perspectives as an early career professional. Her team has also partnered with leading project management tool vendors to host sessions that empower members to ex-plore new tools. Now, they’re working to launch a dynamic tool library, giving members on-demand access to learn project management tools anytime.
Elsa’s passion for learning and connecting with others shines through in everything she does. She shares, “The most rewarding part has been meeting and learning from the incredible talents in the field.” A multi-lingual globetrotter who speaks five languages and has visited over 20 countries, Elsa brings a global per-spective and a human-centered approach to her work. Whether she’s playing badminton, diving into sci-fi novels like Percy Jackson, or dreaming of watching the Aurora Borealis, Elsa lives by the motto: “Choose fear over regret” and “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great!” Her advice to new volunteers? Volunteering does take extra time and effort, but the learning and networking are in-valuable. There are so many hidden opportunities within PMI—from experiencing different industries through events to gaining skills outside of your day-to-day work. We’re proud to have Elsa as part of our Chapter and can’t wait to see what she accomplishes next!