Ellen Agler

Biography

Ellen serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the END Fund, working to see an end of the suffering caused by five neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affecting 1.5 billion people. The END Fund actively supports NTD programs with dozens of partners in more than 25 countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Previously, she served as Operation Smile’s Senior Vice President for International Programs, managing programs to provide comprehensive care to children with cleft lips and cleft palates in over 60 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. As Director of International Operations for International Medical Corps (IMC), Ellen focused on international disaster response and delivery of medical care in complex humanitarian emergencies in over 20 countries. At IMC, she led the organization’s response to the East Asia Tsunami in 2004 and oversaw programs in Darfur, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ellen holds graduate degrees in International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, with a focus on humanitarian affairs, and in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, with a focus on non-profit management and child rights. She has completed postgraduate studies in Conflict Resolution at Universidad de Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.

Ellen currently serves on the board of the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank that promotes policies that lift people from poverty to prosperity. She serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Security Advisory Board and Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases Stakeholders Working Group.

Ellen’s book, Under the Big Tree: Extraordinary Stories from the Movement to End Neglected Tropical Diseases, was published in early 2019 by Johns Hopkins University Press.