Sylvia Ornelas leads communications at Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, bringing 16.5 years of public sector communications experience to the role. She’s a translator—not for languages, but for making sure complex water policies, infrastructure, and crisis updates actually make sense to the public.
Her career has spanned everything from social media and public outreach to emergency communications and board reports. One day, she’s explaining why a customer’s tap water looks brown; the next, she’s managing a full-scale crisis. No two days are the same, and that’s exactly how she likes it.
At the heart of her work is a simple goal: helping people. Whether it’s keeping customers informed, supporting her team, or making sure a reporter doesn’t run with the wrong headline, she thrives on turning confusion into clarity. And when she’s not untangling the latest communications challenge, she’s indulging in a guilty pleasure—soap operas. Because let’s be honest, nothing beats a little well-timed drama.