Ellis is the mother of three elementary and pre-school aged children. “I am running to build a better Wyoming for my kids and those families who have made Wyoming their home.  The Legislature needs energetic leaders to make that happen.”

 

Ellis is Navajo.  She grew up in Jackson as the youngest of four children.  “My parents moved to Jackson from the Navajo reservation in the 1950s and started my dad’s small business, Jim’s Welding. Everyone in my family has had to have strong work ethic just to make ends meet.  My husband’s family owned Ellis Sheep Company in Casper and they share that same work ethic.  There are a lot of families throughout Wyoming who know that struggle and the last thing they need is a government that works against them.  Their views need a strong voice in the Legislature.”

 

Ellis has worked on federal Indian law and policy.  She served as an advisor to the late U.S. Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY).  In 2011, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appointed Ellis to serve as the Senate’s Republican appointee on a national commission charged with developing recommendations to make Native America safer.

 

Ellis is an active volunteer serving on the Wyoming Community Foundation Board of Directors, the University of Wyoming Literacy Research Center and Clinic Advisory Board, Cheyenne Frontier Days, and is the co-chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Tribal Lands Subcommittee.  The Casper Star-Tribune has recognized Ellis as one of Wyoming’s outstanding citizens in its 2011 “20 Under 40” section and the University of Wyoming has recognized her as one its Women of Distinction.   She is as graduate of the University of Wyoming and the University of Colorado Law School.

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Ellis was elected to the Wyoming Senate in 2016.