You can call me Ellie

I’m a public folklorist, writer, dancer, and lover of language and stories. Based in Richmond, Virginia, I’m the current Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts at Mid Atlantic Arts.

I grew up in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and received my BA in Cultural Anthropology in 2017 from the College of William & Mary. I completed my MA in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University in 2021, with a concentration in public folklore. In 2025, I received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to document the occupational culture of veterinarians in the American mushing industry. I have also worked and interned at South Arts, the Kentucky Folklife Program, the Journal of American Folklore, the North Carolina Arts Council, and Long Island Traditions, and I was a 2017-2018 Fulbright English Teaching Fellow at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. In all things, I believe in the necessity of community and culture for building a just and joyful world.