Elly is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Strategic Planning and Coordination Group, and previously served as First Assistant Secretary of East Asia Division. Previous roles included head of the Indonesia Program Delivery and Timor-Leste Branch, Economic Counsellor in Jakarta, First Secretary Political in Beijing and several years in the China political section. Before DFAT, she was a China analyst at the Department of Defence and at the Office of National Assessments. She worked in Beijing as a reporter for the Economist Group and as a translator. She studied modern and classical Chinese at Durham University, UK.