Ellen Gurzinsky died on March 21st, 2025 from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare progressive brain disease for which there is no treatment or cure. She was 72. Ellen was an extraordinary force — a visionary, a truth-teller, a fierce and connected leader whose life was dedicated to justice and liberation for all. 

Ellen was born in New York City on April 12, 1952, to Pearl (Rader) and Sidney Gurzinsky and lived in Williamsburg. They moved to the Lower East Side when she was three and lived in a tenement on 9th Street (where her brother Joel was born) until they moved to a Union-owned coop apartment building on east 6th Street when she was 13. Ellen spent her entire life living in Brooklyn and Manhattan (with a short stint in Hoboken). 

Ellen’s father owned a candy store on the corner of 10th St and Avenue B. The neighborhood featured many great jazz musicians such as John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, and Charlie Mingus, who hung out in the candy store. Her mother was a secretary at Balance Foods, a health food company. Ellen was always proud of her Jewish, working class heritage and emphasized the importance of class in her later political work.

Ellen attended the East Side Hebrew Institute and graduated from Yeshiva High School for Girls. She earned a degree in Psychology from Brooklyn College and a Masters in Social Work from Hunter College. Ellen spent her entire career, as well as most of her free time, working for social justice. She was the director of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and the Park Slope Safe Homes Project, and also worked for the Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the City University of NY and Funders for Lesbian & Gay Issues. From 1995-2006, she was the Executive Director of the Funding Exchange, a community foundation and network of social justice foundations across the US working for “change, not charity” and involving community activists in decision-making. Ellen’s experience with a wide range of organizations reflected her understanding of the importance of intersectional analysis of social issues long before it became a more popular concept on the Left. 

In 2010, Ellen opened a consulting practice, Window Box Coaching and Consulting, to support social justice organizations and leaders to be more effective and strategic in their work by designing and facilitating programs, trainings and meetings. She also provided leadership coaching and executive search functions for social justice organizations.

Ellen taught at Hunter School of Social Work for many years – classes in violence against women, community organizing and social welfare policy. She served on the boards of the Applied Research Center (now Race Forward, for which she was co-chair), Grassroots International and Political Research Associates. 

Ellen was an avid reader, loved music and movies, as well as knitting, swimming, baking and hosting friends for parties. Her smile lit up the world and she was known for her great and easy laugh.

Ellen had a wide and diverse network of friends and colleagues around the country and around the world – of all ages, races and classes. In 2009, she met and began dating her beloved Linda Guinee. They were married in 2017 and raised two beautiful dogs together - Sydney (RIP) and Fenny.

Ellen is survived by her wife, Linda, her brother Joel Gurzinsky (Karen Fong), her niece, Rachael Fong-Gurzinsky and nephew, Jacob Fong-Gurzinsky, as well as many, many amazing friends and her dog Fenny.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, September 27, 2025 at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W 13th Street, NY, NY 10011 from 2-4PM and we are working to make it available through streaming as well. Before she died, Ellen requested that people make donations in these four categories:  immigration justice, Palestinian liberation, resisting the current Republican administration, and passing medical aid in dying in New York and around the country. You can find a list of organizations you can support in these categories at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qh_va7r3aNiNY1zuNTB7U5M7halnUJBWYmIdObyP4ag/edit?usp=sharing.