She was a lecturer at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2006 until 2012. Her dissertation, “Flying Under the Radar with The Royal Chicano Air Force: The Ongoing Politics of Space and Ethnic Identity” won the College of William and Mary’s Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2010. Ella has published through U.C. Santa Barbara’s Imaginarte e-publications, Atzlán: The Journal of Chicano Studies, and in the Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journel of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social.