When Ella Harris left England to row in the U.S., she wasn’t just switching teams—she was stepping into an entirely new culture. From academic expectations to athletic demands, everything was different.
Joining the rowing team at Duke University, the Reading, Berkshire native transitioned from a club program of just six athletes to a team ten times that size.
“I saw an entirely new side to sport itself,” Harris explains. “The collective team pride and the amount of resources poured into athletics in the U.S. were something I’d never experienced before.”
Adding to the challenge of adjusting to a new environment, Harris had to transition from sculling (two oars) to sweeping (one oar)—a shift that required learning an entirely new rowing technique.
She would be lying if she claimed she never had doubts about her decision to leave the Land of Hope and Glory. But looking back, the now-Duke and UCLA product says that the exhausting start to her collegiate athletic career helped her form a future vision for herself.
A 2024 graduate of UCLA’s Transformative Coaching and Leadership program, Harris leveraged her collegiate experiences in the years to come, mentoring prospective student athletes from her old college preparatory, Queen Anne’s School, as well as other British students.
“In (the U.K.), aspiring student-athletes often have no clear pathway to competing in the U.S.—or even at the next level. And that’s what I wanted to change.” Harris says. “So during my studies at UCLA, I was able to connect with students and show them the possibilities that I didn’t even know existed when I was their age.”
Harris, who grew up playing lacrosse and netball, rather than rowing, first discovered the sport through a government-funded talent identification program.
Scouts from the British National Team visited her school and took note of her 5-foot-10 frame.
The rest was history as Harris fell in love with the sport and the doors it continued to open for her in the years to come.
Harris jumped into the varsity-8 lineup to start her freshman year at Duke. She went on to help the Blue Devils’ 2V8 boat capture silver at the ACC Championship before competing with the 1V8 squad at the following three NCAA Championships.
And, after earning degrees in International Studies and Management at Duke, she continued her rowing career at UCLA.
Drawn to UCLA’s program for years, Harris says she discovered TCL her junior season at Duke when she was sidelined by an injury:
“I knew the content I would be learning wasn’t something I could only apply to sports. It was very clear that the program was (imparting) students with knowledge and skills applicable to any field.”
Now working in New York as a client services associate for AlphaSights, it’s fitting that Harris’ role focuses on connecting customers with a global team of niche industry experts.
She says transformative leadership applies to the business world more than she initially expected.
“TCL taught me how to navigate different leadership styles and group dynamics,” Harris says. “I recognize how leadership shapes team culture—whether in sports or the corporate world — and I feel much more confident in my own ability to be a leader.
“In corporate settings, you’re often thrown in at the deep end and find yourself leading where you didn’t expect to be,” Harris explains. “But I’ve felt much more comfortable in those circumstances and I now take a second to look (holistically) at situations before I communicate and I never rush into a decision.”
At Duke, Harris earned four straight years of ACC academic honors. In addition to rowing, she has also coached youth lacrosse and served as a lacrosse and netball umpire. As a club athlete, she competed for the Reading Rowing Club and was selected to England’s U19 national lacrosse squad as a center. Harris was also a county-level swimmer and a part of the Middlesex County Academy for netball.
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