Alva C. Ellisor was born on April 26, 1892 in Galveston, Texas. At the age of eight, she survived the 1900 Great Galveston Hurricane. She had two infant brothers who were killed in the event. Being the valedictorian of her class, she later, in 1915, graduated as an honours student in Geology from the University of Texas, and was one of the two women who graduated in her field. After graduating, Ellisor held a teaching position in Ball High School. This was short-lived as she decided to go back to university and study in hopes of becoming a professor. At the same time Ellisor was studying, she was also doing research in the field of geology under the supervision of her instructors, Professor Francis L. Whitney and Professor Hal P. Bybee. One of her first research papers was published shortly after, in 1918, which consisted of numerous discoveries of her fossils. These same fossils were included in the Handbook of Texas Cretaceous Fossils, by W.S. Adkin (1928). The same year, Ellisor began working as a professor at the University of Kansas teaching geology and in 1919 was able to apply her experience while working for the Kansas Geological Survey.