No matter how many individuals appear in the pages of each edition of Keys Weekly, there are always so many more of our community members who deserve to be recognized. In an effort to shine a spotlight on more of the incredible individuals who live and work in these islands, Keys Weekly is proud to present our Neighbor of the Week feature, dedicated to celebrating a community member with each issue.
Our neighbor of the week is Ananda Ellis, who watches over some of the Keys’ most precious corals as the marine stewardship and monitoring supervisor for Mission: Iconic Reefs. She grew up in Colorado, but a love for the water drew her to the Keys in 2010. In the 16 years since, she’s made her mark on Pigeon Key and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute before switching to lead an eight-person team at NOAA.
ANANDA ELLIS
Mission: Iconic Reefs
How does a landlocked girl from Colorado end up as a scientific diver in the Keys? My parents would take me on tropical vacations, and that instilled in me that I need to be a marine biologist. I started as an intern for the Pigeon Key Foundation back in 2010 and worked my way up to take over for the education director. I decided I wanted to get back into research, so I went back to school, got my master’s degree, and came back to the Keys working for FWC on their coral team. At the end of six years, I was getting too sad with the state of our reefs, but on my team our job was just to record the coral – we weren’t doing restoration or anything. I saw the opportunity to work on NOAA’s Mission: Iconic Reefs field team and jumped on that, and I’ve been there now for four years. We’re an eight-person team responsible for the seven iconic reefs up and down the Keys.
Coral work has seen so many setbacks in recent years, from the heat wave and bleaching to general decline and the veto of the sanctuary’s Restoration Blueprint. What keeps you going? That has been the most difficult part of this career. The 2023 bleaching just hit so hard, and there have been a lot of instances where I’ve had a midlife-crisis type of feeling. I had to switch gears mentally and let my brain focus on something else so I didn’t take it so seriously all the time and I’d come back refreshed. So I’ve really delved into my art over the last couple of years, and that’s been therapeutic.
Talk to us about that! It’s been nice to mentally think through, “OK, if I was to come up with a cartoon for my scenario right now, what would it be?” Coming up with that in my head and putting all my feelings into that image has been incredibly helpful. I can see it, process it and understand it.
But what you do isn’t all cartoon strips, is it? I put prints and original art out into the world, and before that, I was doing small-scale, quickly-reproducible souvenir-type items based on Florida Keys plants and marine animals. I’d sell those wholesale to different businesses throughout the Keys. I’m at Sweet Savannah’s and Sparky’s and collaborate with Pigeon Key very frequently – their logo is my design, and lots of their T-shirts and hats. I’ve made it into a side business now, and I’m in three galleries – Shady Palm in Marathon, Artists in Paradise in Big Pine and a gallery in Key West in the old Coast Guard station off Mallory Square.
Is that a lifelong passion, or did you dive in more recently? A little bit of both. My dad is an artist, so I grew up with art in my life, and I went to an art-focused middle school where we did two hours of art every day. I studied art history as a minor in college, but after that, I really just dropped that whole part of my life off for a while. I doodled here and there, but nothing was going out into the world.
We’ve talked about your work and about your art. Is there something else we haven’t asked about yet? I often say my home is another job. She was built in 1939, right after the hurricane, as part of the Overseas Village. My house is one of eight buildings that were motel units behind the old Overseas restaurant.
OK, now the fun stuff. Are there any weird food combinations you love? Popcorn with ginger, soy sauce, garlic and brewer’s yeast. My mom’s been making it for me since I was young, and it’s the only way I eat popcorn.
What’s something you’re way more opinionated about than you should be? Other people’s driving. If you’re not passing, you shouldn’t be in the left lane – and I’ll yell at people as I pass them.
What’s one little thing you never want to live without? Orthotic flip flops. They look clunky and awful, and I don’t care.
What’s the funniest video you’ve ever seen on the internet? Cats being scared by cucumbers. I know it’s probably not so nice to the cats, but I really do find it hilarious.
If you had to give a TED talk on a totally random topic, what would it be? Being less busy in a busy culture. That’s been my side work for a few years now.
What’s one thing you thought adults had figured out, but they clearly haven’t? My immediate reaction is war. How are we not intelligent enough to not have war? We talk to our kids about using their words. But honestly, life in general. I just thought they knew what they were doing, and I realized that everyone’s just flying by the seat of their pants.
