A native of North Carolina, Ela Milewska joined Cultivation Ministries in June of 1999. Before joining Cultivation, she was the Director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Raleigh, NC. Ela also served as the youth minister for a 3000 family parish for four years. Her first full-time parish ministry was as the Director of Religious Education for a small parish in West Virginia. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has a Master of Arts in Religion and Religious Education from Fordham University in New York.

Ela is an avid Carolina basketball fan, spends most of her free-time vacuuming her dog, Josie Bean's, hair and if you really want to impress her, try calling her by her legal name, Elzbieta. It is the Polish version of Elizabeth.