Amanda Ellis

Background

About Amanda Ellis

What do you want to be when you grow up?" As a kid, I never struggled with that question because I always had an answer: the first female President, architect, model, author, teacher, fashion designer, computer programmer, astronaut, and the list goes on. All of that to find myself a teenager applying for college with an undecided major and major fatigue over what kind of career could possibly check all of my boxes. Still undecided and waiting tables during my last year of high school, I had a couple sit in my section and randomly talk to me about how their daughter was a packaging engineer. This was certainly a career I had never considered before (or even heard of), but they explained how it's like solving a puzzle, and getting to wear many different hats all at the same time. My curiosity was peaked, so I did my research and signed up for an intro class my freshman year. That couple changed my life. I went to school and started a career in that not-so-well-known field of packaging engineering, and somehow it checked all of my boxes. I solve complex problems everyday, ranging from technical evaluations to project timeline negotiations. I have to be detail oriented while also finding creative and innovative solutions to the projects I work on, driving sustainability, performance, and quality goals. Outside of the potential that packaging has to better the world through accessibility and sustainability, my favorite part of my job is the ability to mentor other packaging engineers and build meaningful relationships with colleagues across the many functions that packaging works with. Despite knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up, and changing it 100s of times, I am so grateful that someone took the time to tell me about packaging. I am challenged everyday, not a single day is the same, and I couldn't be happier about it.