Ella Sullivan was born and raised in Chatham County, North Carolina. In Kindergarten, she joined Girl Scout Troop 697. 

Sullivan has continued with Troop 697 up until the present. In 2014, she received the Girl Scout Bronze Award for a troop project collecting movies for UNC Children's Hospital. In 2017, she received the Girl Scout Silver Award for an independent collection of science lesson plans distributed to St. Thomas More Catholic School.

Her Girl Scout Gold Award was inspired by her passion for her community of Chatham County and her interest in journalism. Sullivan loves her community of Chatham County and the rich history of the area. Sullivan's family has resided in the area for a long time, and her family stories are tied to Chatham County. 

Sullivan's late grandfather, E. Lee Sullivan, to whom this project is dedicated, was president of the Chatham County Historical Society at his death and an active members for many years previously. Lee's passion for local history was passed down to Ella along with her other family members' interests in the area and family history. 

During her junior year at Northwood High School in Pittsboro, North Carolina, Sullivan took her first journalism class. She had always been interested in current events, but the class sparked a more specific interest. She worked on many projects that highlighted community members and activities. One such project was her final exam for Journalism I, Pittsboro, which is an interactive website on the history of Pittsboro which currently has close to 1,000 views. 

Sullivan combined her interest in journalism and local history when creating A Look Into Chatham's Past, creating an interactive program that highlights many forms of journalism while highlighting Chatham County's rich history.

Sullivan recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwood High School. She received North Carolina Academic Honors and Northwood's English Departmental Senior Award.

During her senior year, she served as Leadership Chair and State Representative for National Art Honor Society and Liason to Kiwanis Club for National Honor Society and Co-Editor in Chief of Northwood's Student News Publication, The Omniscient. Her work on The Omniscient helped the online publication receive a Tar Heel Award and All North Carolina Distinction with the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association (NCSMA). She was also an active member of Key Club.

In 2021, Sullivan was named runner up for the NCSMA's Rachel Rivers-Coffey North Carolina High School Journalist of the Year Award. In 2020, she received the Daily Tar Heel Scholarship while attending the North Carolina Scholashtic Media Institution. She also received first place in NCSMA's 2021 Video/Multimedia Category for her interactive article, "Musicians You Didn't Know Were From North Carolina." In 2021, she received the  Northwood Art's Education Visual Arts Annual Award and was one of three Northwood seniors to receive the Northwood PTSA scholarship. She also received the Pittsboro Kiwanis Club's Perry Harrison, Pam Woods Duncan and E. Lee Sullivan Scholarships. 

In 2021, Sullivan was named a Chatham 250 Changemaker for her positive community impact through journalism and volunteering with the Pittsboro Kiwanis Club. 

In the fall, Sullivan will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has received early acceptance into UNC's Hussman School of Media and Journalism and intends to major in Journalism. In the future, she hopes to work in book editing and publishing or another journalism related field.