Ellen C. O’Connell is Chief Operating Officer at The Future Society, which she joined in 2025. She is a strategic and transformational nonprofit leader with deep expertise in governance, global operations, fundraising, and scaling nonprofits. Ellen specializes in aligning mission with execution, building sustainable systems, and leading teams through change. She has overseen budgets of up to $650 million and worked in more than 90 countries.

Ellen served as Global Vice President of Administration & Operations at the International Rescue Committee from 1999 to 2014, where she led teams across 40+ countries and 26 U.S. cities. She launched the organization’s global supply chain, co-led a $150M endowment campaign, restructured the board of directors, and served on the senior leadership team that scaled the IRC’s budget from $80 million to $650 million.  From 2014 and 2017, she led Tusk USA, growing revenues from $650K to $6.2M in three years. She also served in early leadership roles at Covenant House, overseeing a team of 400 serving over 10,000 homeless and at-risk youth annually.

In 2017, Ellen founded Sankhara Consulting, through which she was the inaugural CEO of Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind (2018–2021), a $100M initiative in Kenya spearheaded by Dr. Richard Leakey with a focus on human origins, climate change, and global interconnection. As CEO of Farm Sanctuary (2021–2024), she closed a $4M deficit, streamlined operations, and secured the organization’s largest-ever unrestricted grants.

Her consulting clients have included the Okapi Conservation Project, Mara Elephant Project, Change a Life Bwindi, Enarau Conservation, Little Sun,  Little Sun and more.  She chairs the Wildlife Justice Commission Investigations and serves on the board of the Good Shepherd International Foundation.

Ellen holds an M.P.A. from New York University, an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from The New School, and a B.A. in English from Georgetown University. She has a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University and a Certificate in Food & Sustainability from the European Institute for Innovation in Sustainability.