Ellis Reynolds Shipp had a long and distinguished career as one of the early leaders in the practice and teaching of medicine in Utah. She was one of Utah's first female doctors and established a school of obstetrics and nursing in 1878.

Born Ellis Reynolds on 20 January 1847, the oldest child of William Fletcher Reynolds and Anna Hawley, Ellis came to Utah with her parents in 1852. The Reynolds family was among the first settlers of Pleasant Grove. Following the death of her mother in 1861, fourteen-year-old Ellis took over as homemaker for nearly a year until her father remarried. Jealousy or incompatibility with her new stepmother caused Ellis to move in with her grandparents.