Rebecca Ellis

Deputy Litigation Director at the Project on Predatory Student Lending

Rebecca Ellis, deputy litigation director at the Project on Predatory Student Lending, accepted the 2026 Rising Star Award.

Rebecca received the award in recognition of her work leading landmark litigation against the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in Sweet v. McMahon. The class action lawsuit that has so far delivered more than $12 billion in federal student loan cancellation and $1 billion in refunds to nearly 500,000 former students of predatory higher ed schools. 

“Rebecca’s superb advocacy has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers who were cheated by their schools,” said Rich Dubois, executive director of the National Consumer Law Center. “Her colleagues and her clients prize her intellect, dedication, and creativity, and she is clearly a Rising Star.”