Meet Ellen

Community Dedication

Active listening, knowledge, experience and tenacity is what I bring to representing my district. Together, we face challenges and design our future with residential safety, health and quality of life as guiding principles. Approaching land-use, transportation and public safety, I bring local knowledge, organizational & negotiation skills from my career and 34-year residency. Reaching across the table, collaborating with council members on pressing growth issues we face is important to me in this pivotal developmental time for Cottonwood Heights.

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Proven Leadership

  • Founder of Save Not Pave (SNP) to immediately improve Wasatch Blvd’s safety for pedestrians, cyclists & motorists, neighborhood egress/ingress. SNP opposes UDOT's 6-lane (“3-lane Imbalanced”) highway expansion plan.

  • Business career securing convention business for Salt Lake County

  • Recipient of “Dr. Lowell L. Bennion Youth Service Award” from Salt Lake County Division of Youth Services

  • Dedicated to address land use and public safety issues our city currently faces

  • Fiscally conservative

  • Focused on practical, logical solutions to growth challenges

  • Decades of community service within local schools, youth recreational & competitve sports, and safe neighborhoods

  • Connected within Cottonwood Heights and broader county and state community

Empowering Citizens

  • Your voice in City Hall

  • Fight overdevelopment & misplaced housing density

  • Ensure public safety

  • Demand transparency & accountability

  • Protect neighborhood integrity

  • Retain unique Cottonwood Heights character

  • Look out for our senior citizens

  • Build community by connecting people

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Grandmother. Wife. Business executive. Youth and senior advocate. Outdoors-woman. Published writer. 40-year Salt Lake County resident.

“As a business woman, the importance of understanding the needs and desires of all stakeholders, then working to find practical and viable solutions and outcomes is something I practiced over my 24 year career securing meeting and convention contracts for Salt Lake County. I will bring this experience, as well as, a lifetime of developing empathy, compassion and inclusiveness.”

— Ellen Birrell

I was raised in a faith-based environment featuring community awareness and engagement all through my formative years. My parents modeled service to others and the benefit of law and order. "Police are here to serve and protect," my mother said when I first got my driver's license. "If you have a car problem on the road, pull over. Turn your emergency flashers on and wait for a police officer. You can trust them to help," she said.

Growing up in the secure knowledge I was loved and safe, with a solid public education and the freedom to bicycle and walk to school, friends and recreation, I thrived. To get around independently but with boundaries, is one of things I want for our children, grandchildren and ourselves.

Like you, what I want from city government is putting residents' safety and quality of life as the priority.