Ellsworth received a Franklin Furnace Performance award and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Jane Franklin Hall, University of Tasmania, in Hobart. She also received a Faculty Research Endowment from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and was the Evelyn Smith Endowed Professor in the School of Art at Arizona State University.

She has received Arizona Commission on the Arts Project Grants and an ACA Visual and Media Arts Fellowship. She received a Surdna Art Teachers Fellowship from the Surdna Foundation and has received a Contemporary Forum Materials Grant from the Phoenix Art Museum, New Forms Regional Initiative Grant from DiverseWorks and Mexi-Arte, Art Matters, Inc. Fellowship, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship, and a New Forms Regional Grant from The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.