Ellen B. Aquino was born on February 24, 1982, ten minutes ahead of her identical twin sister, Kate. She grew up in Webster and graduated from Webster High School in 2000. Ellen was involved with Girl Scouts for 13 years, and participated in the middle school musicals (Once Upon a Mattress, Sound of Music, and Annie - where she was the "star to be" and had a solo part in "NYC").

During the summer between her Junior and Senior year of high school, Ellen was hired at Camp Haccamo as a junior counselor ("Ellen Junior)". Her experiences working that summer helped her to determine what she wanted to pursue with her college education - special education. Ellen returned to camp each summer, as a junior counselor, head counselor, and for her last year with camp, one of the directors.

Ellen earned an academic scholarship at Daemen College in Amherst, NY and graduated in 2004. She was hired by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs (SECEP), in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she was the teacher for a class of middle school autistic students. She earned a great deal of respect from her peers and supervisors, as well as from the parents of her students.

Following her year at SECEP, Ellen returned to the Rochester area and was employed by Continuing Developmental Services (CDS) as a behavior specialist, overseeing the behavior plans for residents of several CDS facilities.

In September of 2006, Ellen returned to Daemen College to work on her Master's Degree and participated in the Thomas Reynolds Program where part of the course requirements was to tutor special needs Buffalo City school children in the afternoons. In addition to the tutoring, Ellen also worked for the University of Buffalo as an observer for a research study on how teachers and children interacted.

Ellen participated in the Daemen College graduation ceremony in May of 2007 with family members there to cheer her on. She would have officially received her Masters in Education degree in August of 2007, at which time her plans were to return to SECEP in Virginia Beach and again teach middle school autistic students - which she was extremely excited to do.

Ellen was killed in an automobile accident on June 16, 2007.