Ellen, orig­i­nal­ly from Albu­querque, NM, cur­rent­ly resides in New York City. She has been a vol­un­teer teacher at the Rodeph Sholom School and has held var­i­ous vol­un­teer patient sup­port posi­tions at Mount Sinai Hos­pi­tal in NYC. She is an avid read­er and active par­tic­i­pant con­tem­po­rary fic­tion book groups.