Ellen Perlmutter ’74 seemed destined for the University of Pennsylvania. Growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Ellen’s parents assumed she would follow in their footsteps. But when the time came to apply to college, Ellen cast a wider net. That search led her to Cornell.
“Of the schools I applied to, only Cornell admitted women exactly on equal footing with men,” Ellen said. Almost all of her potential options offered a separate women’s college: Cornell stood apart.
“I had an interview on campus. It was raining, and I still fell in love with the place,” Ellen said. “Cornell was far and away the best choice.”
Ellen arrived on campus in August 1970. She majored in psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and pursued honors research on dream analysis.
“Cornell made me have to figure out ‘What do I value? What matters to me, and how I am going to pursue it?’” Ellen said. That search led her to discover a love of the arts through courses in drawing, art history, and music history, including a memorable senior seminar on printmaking.
It was also during her senior year that Ellen connected with fellow psychology major, Ed Jones ’74.
“We were in two classes together and didn’t know each other,” Ellen said. They ran in the same social circles junior year, and by senior year, “it just clicked.” They celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year.
The pair moved west for graduate school and internships before settling in Los Angeles, where Ellen built a career as a psychologist. Thirteen years after graduation, Ellen’s first foray into volunteering was as an admissions ambassador with the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network (CAAAN).
“I loved meeting with students and learning about their accomplishments and goals. They made me feel very hopeful about the future,” Ellen said.
In conversations with prospective students, Ellen soon felt that her own Cornell experience had been narrowly focused. To help applicants to the best of her ability, Ellen decided to invest all she could into learning about the university and what it could offer. She became a devotee of The Daily Sun and read Morris Bishop’s dense volume, A History of Cornell.
That deepening connection led Ellen to take on roles in the CAAAN Advisory Council and as president of the Cornell Club of Los Angeles (CCLA). More appointments followed, to the Cornell University Council and the President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW).
Then came what Ellen described as a “remarkable gift”—she put her already extensive admissions knowledge into practice and joined Cornell’s undergraduate admissions staff as assistant director of admissions for the West Coast, a position she held for 12 years.
“I came to really understand Cornell in a deeper way and to love it even more,” Ellen said.
When she retired in 2019, Ellen picked up exactly where she left off with volunteering. She returned to leadership roles on the Council Administrative Board, PCCW Steering Committee, as vice chair of the CAAAN Advisory Council, and as a board member of CCLA. She also became a vice chair of the Cornell Alumni Trustee Nominations Committee, and continues to support Cornell’s philanthropic outreach.
Looking back on more than three decades of service, Ellen reflected that the relationships have meant as much as the work itself.
“I have met the nicest people. I have made the most lovely friends,” Ellen said. “My engagement with staff, alumni, and students has enriched my life in an intellectual and social way beyond anything I could have imagined.”
