Burr was born Ellen Burr Leonard in Atlanta, Georgia on May 16th, 1947. Her sister Mimi arrived a year and a half later. Burr’s father George was an editor at Look Magazine and later wrote books about human potential. One of these books, “Mastery,” became a foundational guide for The Bar Method®.

The family moved to Connecticut, San Francisco and then New York City. Burr developed into a shy tomboy who won friends as a teenager by teaching herself to play the guitar. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley where she studied anthropology and journalism.