Ellen Boyd Biography

Ellen Boyd was raised on a small family farm in Plainfield, Iowa and attended Plainfield Community School with a graduating class of thirty-seven students.  Her childhood on the farm was wonderful. The freedom to roam and explore the outdoors consumed her, and she grew to appreciate nature and to be creative. She learned to milk cows, drive a tractor, harness a buggy, bale hay, pick strawberries, clean pig pens, butcher chickens, and other farm duties. She jokes that if her teaching career does not work out, she has multiple skills on which to fall.

Despite the carefree life a farm kid, she knew that she did not want to become a farm wife. While farm life was free and unincumbered, it was also isolating, so Ellen looked for ways to see the world. She moved to Midland TX to pursue a career in retail management. She would meet the love of her life, Bill Boyd, and they settled down to raise a family of three children: Will, Charlotte, and Katherine. To maintain her sanity, Ellen volunteered with PTA, church, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the Smocking Guild earning awards like District 18 Outstanding PTA Service Award, Chaparral District BSA Outstanding Service Award, Arts Assembly Volunteer of the Year, Girl Scout Volunteer Award of Excellence, and Lifetime PTA Award. Her life shifted in 1999 when Bill had a heart attack. He is fine, but this event told Ellen that she must have a way to support their young family in case things changed. Ellen went back to college and earned Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in English and began teaching after a short stint as program developer for Girl Scouts of the Permian Basin.

Ellen learned that she is a writer and began applying for competitive grants to fund projects that included bringing in a Holocaust survivor to speak with students, a Funds for Teachers grant that included a nineteen-day trip to England and a teacher workshop at Oxford University, and two National Endowment for the Humanities grants to attend work shops in New York City and the University of Arkansas. She is in her eighteenth year of teaching and is currently the English Department Chair at Legacy High School, National Honor Society Sponsor, teaches dual credit for Midland College, and is an adjunct for UTPB. In her spare time, she reads, collects antiques, and travels. She is most proud of her children who have become better people than she says she could ever be.