Dr. Eleanor Noss Whitney or Ellie Whitney grew up in New York City and earned her BA and Ph.D. degrees in English and Biology at Harvard and Washington Universities. She taught at Florida A&M University and Florida State University, wrote environmental weekly columns for the Tallahassee Democrat, and coauthored about a dozen college textbooks on health, nutrition, and related issues, many of which return in new versions on a regular basis.

She spent three decades traveling and studying the outdoors of Florida before co-authoring Priceless Florida: Natural Ecosystems And Native Species. Dr. Whitney also volunteers full-time with Citizens Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan national charity, now that she is retired and more concerned about climate change than any other problem.