Remembering Joe Ellis

Every time you follow a Swainson’s Hawk or Wood Thrush on the Bird Migration Explorer, or visit Sharon Audubon Center in Connecticut, you’re seeing the work that Joe Ellis helped make possible. Joe, a longtime board director for National Audubon Society, enthusiastic birder, and passionate conservationist, passed away earlier this year and left a legacy of conservation that spans the globe.  

As a big-picture strategic thinker, Joe envisioned many of the foundational changes that Audubon has made over the past two decades, shepherding Audubon’s work from local excellence to hemispheric impact and specifically focusing on advancing Audubon’s scientific capabilities. As a keen observer with a knack for spotting emerging trends, he was an early proponent that Audubon needed to expand into Canada and Latin America and turn our scientific rigor toward hemispheric conservation. That analytical mind was honed over decades as one of Goldman Sachs’ most effective analysts, and during his career he was ranked the top retail market analyst by Institutional Investor 18 years in a row.

But more than that, Joe really loved birds. He continually asked questions like, “What happens to the Wood Thrushes after they leave my backyard, and are they taken care of wherever they go?” Those were not idle musings: During his tenure, Joe would help develop the strategies that enabled Audubon to turn those queries into actionable conservation. As part of his vision to connect local action to hemispheric impact, Joe made sure that the habitat on his property in western Connecticut was managed to support bird life and would happily show off the results by taking friends birding in his golf cart.

Joe approached philanthropy the way he approached his career in finance, with rigor and a clear eye on results, always asking what a philanthropic investment would accomplish for birds, and his relationship with Audubon stretched back many decades. He believed the boldest conservation ideas deserved the boldest backing and he gave financial support accordingly, often stepping in early, before an idea had proven itself, because he trusted the science and the people behind it. His seed funding for the Migratory Bird Initiative and the Bird Migration Explorer did more than launch two signature programs. It gave Audubon the opportunity to expand hemispherically and helped draw other supporters to our cause. For his contributions to this work, Joe was awarded the 2021 Environmental Leadership Award from Audubon Connecticut.

Closer to home, his sustained donations strengthened Sharon Audubon Center and conservation across Connecticut and New York, the places where his love of birds first took root. The programs he helped launch and the landscapes he cherished carry his generosity forward today.

Those who knew Joe described him as having a big New York personality—enthusiastic, curious, direct, and authoritative about every undertaking, but tempered with kindness and genuine care for the people with whom he worked and collaborated. He also dearly loved a good joke.

“Joe Ellis understood the power of ambitious ideas and the importance of bringing the right people together to make them possible,” says Audubon CEO Dr. Elizabeth Gray. “He pushed us to think expansively about our role and helped lay the foundation for the hemispheric organization we are today. Joe’s legacy will endure across Audubon, and he will be deeply missed.”