She directs the TXST Physics Learning Assistant Program and co-organizes regional and national workshops through the National Learning Assistant Alliance. She received her Physics M.S. from the University of Washington in 2003 and her Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Seattle Pacific University in 2009. Before moving to Texas in 2011, she taught at Seattle Pacific University for eight years, where she had a joint appointment in the Physics Department and the School of Education. Between receiving her B.A. in Physics from Bryn Mawr College and starting graduate school, Eleanor taught high school physics and physical science for three years in rural North Carolina, where she became science department chair by seniority after teaching for five months. In her non-work life, she co-parents three young children with her husband Dr. Hunter Close, also a p hysics professor at TXST.