About

You can call me Ellie

I’m a folklorist, a dancer, and a lover of language, words, and stories. I am the current Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts at Mid Atlantic Arts, where I manage the Central Appalachia Living Traditions program and other traditional arts initiatives.

Originally from Hampton Roads, Virginia, I received my BA in Cultural Anthropology in 2013 from the College of William & Mary in Virginia and my MA in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University, with a concentration in public folklore, in 2021. From 2021-2023, I served as the Assistant Director for Traditional Arts at South Arts, based in Atlanta, Georgia, where I helped to facilitate the In These Mountains initiative supporting and documenting traditional arts and cultures in Central Appalachia. I have also worked and interned at the Kentucky Folklife Program, the Journal of American Folklore, the North Carolina Arts Council, and Long Island Traditions, and was a 2017-2018 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. I’m a passionate believer in the importance of applied folklore work and the role traditional culture can play in building a more equitable world.