Lisa Ellis grew up in Buffalo, New York, the youngest of four children. She was always good at spelling, and won all of the Spelling Bees in elementary school. Her favorite prize was a Hershey bar with almonds.

For high school during the Vietnam War, Lisa attended a Quaker school in Poughkeepsie, NY, in the beautiful Hudson River valley. Bonnie Raitt, long before becoming a Grammy-winning music icon, was a classmate and the proctor in Lisa's dorm. Bonnie played her guitar and sang protest songs to the girls before bedtime. 

Lisa was a pioneering member of the first four-year coed class at Yale University. There were 4,000 undergraduate men on campus, but only about 250 freshman women, with another 250 or so sophomore and junior transfers. She is grateful for the excellent academic opportunities and the friendships made at Yale, but the early days of coeducation and breaking barriers were tough.