Ellsworth is Assistant Professor of Intermedia in the Herberger College of the Arts at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Her research crosses disciplines of drawing, performance and installation.

She is a founding director of Art Intersection and Two Little Wishbones where she regularly teaches workshops in walking and drawing.

Ellsworth has taught at Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy with Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky and was a founding member of Metropolitan Arts Institute in Phoenix, Arizona where she chaired the Visual Arts Department. She has also taught performance and visual art workshops throughout the United States as well as in Iceland and Italy.