Ellen Fireman has taught statistics to many thousands of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over the last twenty years. She prepared for this task by getting a B.A. in Philosophy from Harvard, teaching at a day-care center, driving a school bus, getting an M.A. in Secondary Math  from Illinois, teaching at a public middle school, getting an M.S. in Statistics from Illinois, and teaching precalculus, calculus and then, for seven years, a large Linear Algebra class at Illinois. She received the Lynn M. Martin Award and the LAS and Campus awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching for her  statistics teaching.

She frequently gives talks to groups on and off campus explaining the importance of statistical reasoning in everyday life and even teaching a little about causation and confounders. She lives in Urbana, Illinois where she raised two children and currently has one husband.