Carl Stephens Ell (November 14, 1887 – April 17, 1981) was the second president of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1940 to 1959.

He was born in Staunton, Indiana on November 14, 1887, son of Jacob and Alice (Stephens) Ell.

He married Etta May Kinnear on June 10, 1913, and had one daughter, Dorothy.

During his presidency, he led the university through a period of physical expansion as well as the development of Northeastern's various colleges, the growth of its co-op program, student population, evening education, and educational status.

This biography of an American academic administrator born in 1880–1899 is a stub.