Ellen I. Graves

Ellen I. Graves, M.Ed., directs the Citizen Leader Fellowship, a pan-university leadership initiative for students to develop contemplative leadership skills to improve the flourishing of their UVA student communities for international students, student athletes, and transfer students. She manages the contemplative leadership curriculum, co-teaches the two associated courses, provides direct mentorship to students, convenes the multi-departmental advisory team, and much more.  

 

Before working with the CSC, Ellen spent over ten years building innovative and supportive educational environments in higher education. She served as the Director of Work Learning at Warren Wilson College and the Elizabeth Taylor Greer Fellow at the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center at UVA. Ellen is also a scholar of higher education with published works on the effects of Title IX on the lived experiences of students, specifically trans college athletes. 

 

At the heart of Ellen's work is her deep care for students. She believes in the transformational power of being present in students’ lives within and beyond the classroom, of learning about them as complete and complex humans, and of being authentically present with them. Ellen centers the student experience and their voice in all her work. 

 

Ellen has a master’s in education with a concentration in higher education administration from UVA’s School of Education and Human Development and a bachelor’s of arts in psychology from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. And, while she is currently a doctoral student in the Higher Education program of the School of Education at Virginia Tech, she remains a life-long Hoo.