She joined Virginia Tech after receiving her doctoral degree from Georgia Tech in 1996. Dr. Ellis's research program addresses operational planning problems that arise in manufacturing and service systems. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Averitt Express, and Volvo. Dr. Ellis teaches courses in Production Planning and Systems Engineering. She is also the recipient of the Ralph R. Teetor Award for Young Educators from the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Sporn Award for Teaching from the College of Engineering.