Ellen McCallie grew up in St. Louis and is a tropical ecologist and educator. She spent a year in Bogor, Indonesia, as an American Field Service (AFS) exchange student before attending Grinnell College in Iowa, where she earned a bachelor's degree in biology with a concentration in environmental science. McCallie then spent a year as a Fulbright scholar, conducting research on the pollination of agroforestry trees in the Amazon basin. Her graduate research was conducted in Timor, Indonesia, focusing on alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture. McCallie became the first education curator of the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House and Education Center in St. Louis before starting her own elementary science curriculum business. She is currently the coordinator of interpretation in the education division at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

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