January 19, 2007

RE: Letter of Recommendation for Brian “Fox” Ellis

It is with great pleasure to write a Letter of Recommendation for Mr. Brian “Fox” Ellis. I have had the privilege to work with Mr. Ellis at The Field Museum in Chicago through a variety of teacher professional development workshops. The Field Museum seeks out expert educators for a variety of educational programs. Fox has a unique strength and ability to bring exhibitions and Museum collections to life through multiple creative means.

Fox is truly one of the most creative individuals I’ve witnessed in the 20-years of being an educator. His creativity and passion for the Museum immediately stood out. He’s thoughtfully engaging and expresses his ideas and stories clearly. He takes a lead role in researching and presenting creative new teaching concepts and shares his expertise and time whenever possible. Mr. Ellis’s mastery in storytelling and craft puts him in a strong position to stimulate the creative learning process through hands-on participatory immersive teaching methods to implement any curriculum, regardless of learning styles.

Fox’s energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to education continues to grow, as he has developed the skills and knowledge necessary for effectively teaching with a diverse audience in a variety of settings. He possesses a number of qualities that will no doubt influence his future community of learners in a highly positive way. In addition to being highly organized, yet flexible and adaptive to the needs of his audience, Fox has a great sense of professionalism, and a wide range of past life experiences from which to draw upon in any teaching environment. I am confident that these qualities will allow him to have a significant impact on his future audiences and with his future collaborations and/or partnerships.

I highly recommend Mr. Brian “Fox” Ellis for work within your organization. Fox is a committed educator, storyteller, craftsman, and active community member with both the knowledge and skills to integrate social and personal transformational learning and educational experiences that will directly impact future generation. In addition, his unwavering focus, dedication, passion, and positive attitude will be an asset to any community he will guide, teach, and touch. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to call me at 312-665-7513, or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sincerely yours,

Monica Garcia, M.Ed.
Manager of Teacher Programs & Partnerships
The Field Museum
Education Department
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496

Hi Cindy!!

Brian is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is fabulously engaging and just holds you in the palm of his hand and doesn’t let go until the end of the story! My favorite experience with Brian was during our day camp, he was just amazing with the children. They were captivated by him and it was a joy to watch! He has led interpreter workshops for me and did a great job assisting my interpretive staff and volunteers on writing their own stories with their own voices to present historical themes here at the Fort. He also performed a full length theatrical play with several other performers last year giving us Black Hawk’s version of the Black Hawk War in story, song, and dancing. I really can’t speak highly enough of him. He is a dear friend and consummate professional. You will really enjoy him and make a good friend in the process.

Take care,

Susan Gordy
Executive Director Apple River Fort State Historic Site

Hello Fox,

I was a part of the workshop you did on Feb. 2nd at Itasca village and I just wanted to drop you an e-mail to let you know just how helpful your presentation was in providing me with the tools to expand on the programs I have at the Shedd Aquarium. I did pilot your Snake Story on the floor during our corn snake encounter and I have had the best reception from our guests and my co-workers.

I begin the story by telling the group that when "I was a little girl, my friend Brian Ellis was invited to spend some time with his Uncle in Florida at his corn farm". This not only gives you the credit for writing this (I think brilliant) story, but it sets the backdrop for where you could find the animal we are going to encounter. I follow the story pretty closely from there, the fear in the beginning, the period of exploration with the animal, and the homecoming. I then bring out the animal and I have the children point out all of the things they remember the snake doing in the story. We talk about eating, and look at a snake jaw, we talk about the cool smooth skin and then the group gets to touch…its just amazing.

I think the best part of this whole experience is that it allowed me to explore the use of my imagination AND the guests, something I did not think would fly, but people will wait to see an animal so long as you are engaging and you have some suspense to keep them wanting more.

I am working on a penguin story, something that is taking longer then I anticipated with all of the research, and I would love to have the opportunity to have some feedback from you. Hopefully this e-mail made you smile and let me know if you are willing to give the chat a look over.

Again, many thanks,
Christine Chirchirillo
Shedd Aquarium Floor Programs Interpreter

Dear Brian,

We were so delighted with your program on Audubon. The presentation was interesting, funny, insightful and very educational. Our audience enjoyed the stories told from Audubon's point of view. Children and adults both loved the program. One lady in the audience made it a point to tell us that she never realized that Audubon was such a "conservationist and scientist". She never realized he was the first to band birds and track their migration.

We hope that sometime in the future you can come and do this presentation for our museum again. We at The Elgin Public Museum promote quality education that also engages an audience. Brian, you were a wonderful presenter that filled this niche for us.

Thanks again,
Cherrie Musial
The Elgin Public Museum
Elgin, Il