Ellie came to PRBO Conservation Science in 1999 with extensive management, fundraising and policy expertise.  Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Ellie received her undergraduate degree with honors in Botany (focus on ecology) from Duke University.  Field studies in butterfly ecology brought her to California in 1979.  

She later received her Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where she was honored with the Policy Analysis Exercise Award for highly distinguished performance and the first annual Robert F. Kennedy Public Service Award.

In 2001, she was awarded a fellowship to Stanford University’s Executive Program for Non-profit Leaders at the Graduate School of Business.  From 2002-2005, Ellie was honored to represent the US Shorebird Plan on the U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Ellie currently serves as an invited member of the US North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) Committee’s Policy and Legislative Subcommittee, as a management board member of both the San Francisco Bay (Immediate Past Chair) and the Central Valley Joint Ventures (USFWS), and as a member of NOAA’s Pacific Coast Ocean Observing System Governing Board. 

In January 2009, Ellie was an invited plenary speaker at the west coast-wide “Climate Change, Coastal Resources and Natural Resources Management” conference sponsored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Geological Survey. (See http://www.fws.gov/pacific/Climatechange/meetings/presenter.cfm?id=1).  Ellie was also the invited keynote speaker at the Southern California Wetlands  Recovery Project in May 2008, invited on to the Policy Advisory Committee of the Evolutionary Change in Human-altered Environments International Summit (February, 2007, UC Los Angeles) and an invited participant in The Climate Project trainings (January, 2007, Nashville). 

In March 2009, as part of National Women’s History Month, Ellie was among 100 women honored nationally under the theme of Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet (www.nwhp.org).  She was recognized for her contributions to understanding and addressing the negative impacts of rapidly accelerating environmental change on our ecosystems. 

Ellie and her family live in San Anselmo, California.