Ellie is a second-year graduate student at the University of Missouri. Originally from Barrington, Illinois, she got her undergraduate degree in Criminology and Law Studies at Marquette University in 2019. She came to the J School from Kansas City, where she worked in Public Defense as an Investigator for 4 years. She is coming back to CPOY having worked as the lead coordinator for Pictures of the Year International 81 and an assistant coordinator for CPOY 78. She spent the summer interning at WCMU Public Media in Mount Pleasant, Michigan as both an audio reporter and photojournalist. Her passions lie in newspaper and public radio photojournalism. She hopes her pictures and stories tell a wide range of community stories and events, from sports to concerts to protests and more. She believes her pictures and work can inform the world around us with the truth, therefore increasing the trust and media literacy the public has in news and journalism.