Ellen Poulter has been advising English majors and minors, answering faculty questions, helping chairs with scheduling, and serving as department heart and soul for the past twenty-three years. She has been central to the student experience, guiding generations of English majors to their graduation with a sure hand, and contributing to every aspect of our department culture. She has touched the lives of countless students, faculty members, and secretaries, from events and celebrations to writing reports on the implications of curriculum revisions and policy implementation. She has helped organize department events of all kinds.

Ellen helped department chairs and directors in particular, who have all relied on Ellen’s deep institutional knowledge and connections. I know from personal experience that the decision to serve as department chair was easier knowing that Ellen was in the advisor’s seat, a true and trusted vizier to every department administrator and a seasoned and sympathetic guide to our students. Former Graduate Director Amy Mossman notes “When she was in Simpkins with the English Department, Ellen not only spearheaded and helped on the scholarship committee, but also helped to organize and mcee the annual department awards night. Ellen went above and beyond for English because she enjoyed being an active, engaged member of the Department community and because she had many talents and strengths to offer in places where they were needed.” Former chair Mark Mossman agrees, saying “I have never known an advisor as talented, devoted, and student-focused as Ellen Poulter. For her entire career, she has been the ultimate resource for the Department, for the College of Arts and Sciences, and for the University. For me, as a former chair, she was the heart and soul of the department, and the ultimate source of wise counsel and advice.” Former chair Chris Morrow say, “Ellen not advising English majors and minors will be akin to a book without a cover. She kept our students on the right path, provided support for them in so many different ways, and advocated for them as well as providing insight on student issues and scheduling to faculty and administrators in the department. To this day, I remove the K-cup immediately from the brewer because I know that Ellen will fuss at me if I don’t!” Current Department chair Marjorie Allison writes, “From the day that Ellen interviewed to become the advisor for the Department of English, she has demonstrated both true professionalism and also compassion for faculty and students alike. No one knows the ins and outs of the English Major better than Ellen. No one has a better sense of which student needs what than Ellen. Her retirement, while a joyful and wonderful moment for her, is a moment of loss for the department. She will be greatly missed!”

Nick Rush, an English major and Managing Editor of The Mirror and the Lamp recalls that when he decided to transfer out of The University of Utah he came to Western “because Ellen Poulter picked up the phone in Simpkins Hall and talked with me for a full hour. She was so friendly and kind, answering my questions about tuition, telling me about all the major had to offer and what my path into Western would look like. I choose Western because of that phone call.”

The Mirror & the Lamp reached out to Ellen and asked her about her years in the department and what she is looking forward to in retirement.

M&L: What is your background in English, and how did you become the advisor to the English program, and what year did you begin?

EP: I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in both English and Communication from Monmouth College in 1992. I started my career in radio as a Production Director, writing and producing commercials, utilizing aspects of both major fields. Those early years were so much fun. Almost everyone at the station was in their 20’s and early 30’s, and we just had a blast every day. Honestly, WIU came along in 1996 more as an answer to the problem of there being “no money in radio,” than any great desire to work in academia at the time. I was still young with no real thought of “the long term” yet. My first advising position was in the Industrial Education and Technology Department (now Engineering Technology), and I loved it there, but when Kathy Balderson, who was then the English Department advisor, announced in 2002 she was going back to faculty full-time, I jumped at the chance to return to my roots and advise students in English and Journalism. Although my role changed drastically in 2019, when I was reassigned to Morgan Hall and several additional departments were added to my advising load, my heart has always remained with the English Department, and Simpkins Hall will always be my home.

M&L: What have you most enjoyed about your role as advisor to the English program?

EP: I most enjoyed the 17 years I was in Simpkins, embedded, as it were, with the faculty, staff and students. We were a family. I loved walking down the hall and having conversations with my students. I loved knowing all of them personally, their goals, their dreams, helping them navigate problems and celebrate wins. It is the thing I have missed most since moving to Morgan Hall as a CAS advisor – that feeling of family, connection. That was a loss I felt deeply, although there are many wonderful people in Morgan, and I have enjoyed my last six years there as well. I also loved working with all of our English chairs over the years. The longer I was in the department, the more I felt like a trusted partner and ally in keeping all of the wheels turning. I have such wonderful memories of Simpkins. The long conversations with the fantastic Joan Livingston-Webber, the almost daily argument with Chris Morrow and Mark Mossman about who left their used k-cup in my Keurig, the smell of the lilacs at the east entrance in the spring and the crazy-ass geese who took over Lake Ruth every year, marching the perimeter like soldiers on patrol as they protected their nest while we all waited anxiously to see their babies hatch. Then there were hugs in the hallway from Barb Lawhorn, Bonnie Sonnek breathlessly flying into my office and throwing herself into the chair by my desk, arms full of books and papers, coffee talks with Marjorie Allison, feeling fiercely guarded by Lynne Ward for months during one of the worst times in my life, book and film recommendations from Mark Mossman and David Banash, each one saying, “don’t listen to him . . . read this, watch this.” There are so many other people and memories that I know I’m leaving out, but there is not one moment I didn’t love Simpkins and that wonderful, eclectic family who was there with me every day.

M&L: Looking back, what contributions to the students and the department are you most proud of?

EP: It sounds so simple, but I think I am most proud of just knowing I was there and always knew what to do if someone needed me, whether that was a student, a chair, a faculty member, another advisor on campus, whoever it was. I have loved having a career in which I always felt useful to someone. I think we all want to feel needed in the world, and my career at WIU has afforded me that, while allowing me to surround myself with amazing and brilliant people.

M&L: What will you miss the most about the work you do?

EP: I will miss my students. I will miss the intellectual challenge that came with figuring out degree plans for 250-300 students across multiple disciplines. Academic advising is nothing if not a puzzle to be solved on a daily basis, and my brain dearly loves puzzles. I will miss the sound of the marching band practicing in the fall. I will miss living by the academic year rather than the calendar year. I will miss Lake Ruth and the Sherman Hall carillon, and the way a college campus feels in the fall, so full of new possibilities. I will miss the sound of someone knocking on my office door and saying, “do you have time for a question?” Yes, always.

M&L What are you most looking forward to in retirement?

EP: Peace, lol. Rejuvenating my reading life. Returning to my first love, which has always been writing. It has had to take a back seat to everything else for so many years, but it gets to come out and play now. I think I am mostly looking forward to re-imagining a new life. Almost 30 years is a long time to have done the same thing in the same place. WIU has been my touchstone, at times my saving grace, and I have loved almost every bit of it, but I also can’t wait to do something different, someplace new. Once a Leatherneck, always a Leatherneck, though! 💜