Ellen Magnis is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Family Gateway, an organization dedicated to serving families with children experiencing homelessness. She is responsible for fundraising, community relations and staff development, including oversight of the community’s only emergency shelter that will serve any kind of family with children, complete with wrap-around services and an afterschool program, as well as programs supporting more than150 families in supportive housing. Under her leadership, the agency is now recognized as the Access Point in Dallas County to assess families with children seeking shelter care and triaging them to the appropriate intervention.
She was formerly Interim Executive Director for Minds Matter’s national office, located in Manhattan. There, she was responsible for working with a Board of Directors to support chapters across the country to raise funds, build partnerships and find creative solutions to overcome barriers to serve more high school students from low-income families.
Ellen spent 8 years at the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center as Chief of External Affairs, with responsibilities in fundraising, partnership development, legislative affairs and development of an education program, including an annual international conference for more than 3,900 professionals.
Ellen began her non-profit career at the national center of the American Heart Association where she was responsible for national strategic alliances and healthcare quality. In collaboration with numerous medical professional volunteers across the country, she launched a nationwide hospital certification program as part of a comprehensive effort to change the way care for stroke patients was managed at a systems level. This work is noted in medical literature as a case study on successful systems change.
With a personal mission to help transform the lives of children/families, Ellen is also a first-generation college graduate who knows she could have just as easily ended up as a client at Family Gateway. She has an undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology, Sociology and Research) and an MBA with a concentration in Organizations and Strategy from the University of Texas at Dallas.