Ellis Ballard
Assistant Professor of Practice
Contact
Phone: 314-935-3072
Email: eballard@wustl.edu
Education
MSW/MPH, Washington University in St. Louis, Brown School of Social Work
Areas of Focus
Systems science
Community Based System Dynamics
Participatory methods
Communities of practice
Organization & Community Strategy
Disability inclusion
Biography
Ellis Ballard is Assistant Professor of Practice at the Brown School and at the School of Public Health. His body of work focuses on partnering with research & community partners on the use of participatory systems science & design methods to develop community-driven strategies, and on leading methodological innovation on the use of these tools. He is the specialization chair for the Brown School’s System Dynamics Specialization and teaches courses in Community Based System Dynamics, System Dynamics Simulation for Strategic Design, and SD Applied Practice Labs. He is the former Director and advisor for the Brown School’s Social System Design Lab.
In addition to his work at the Brown School, Ellis is a Founding Partner at Tributary Design, a strategic design partnership that works with community organizations, health systems, and researchers apply system dynamics modeling to examine complex problems and human-centered design to translate insights into action.
Prior to joining the Brown School, Ellis worked in disability rights advocacy and research. He advanced disability rights advocacy in U.S foreign affairs and contributed to capacity building efforts and program evaluations with community-based organizations and disabled people’s organizations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Ellis has a Masters of Social Work and a Masters of Public Health from the Brown School at Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in English and History from Oberlin College in Ohio. In his free time he is an active cyclist and a budding gardener.
In Brown School News
Faculty Receive Grants for Diabetes Health Disparities and Mental Health Research
July 22, 2024
Reis Hosts Lancet Project Meeting on Climate Change, Physical Activity, and Planetary Health
March 3, 2023
Well-Received Systems Science Summer Institute Back In-Person for its Third Year
May 12, 2022
Social System Design Lab Tackles Complex Problems Using Community-Based Science
March 5, 2022
Brown School Awarded Systems for Action Grant to Improve Child Welfare
July 1, 2020