During their many years together, Ella and Henry often collaborated professionally, as educators, authors, preachers, and mentors for doctoral students.
[10] Mitchell has held many positions in the academic world: first woman Dean of Sisters Chapel at Spelman College; professor at American Baptist Seminary of the West and the School of Theology at Claremont;[3] associate professor at Virginia Union University; and instructor in Religious Education at Berkeley Baptist Divinity School.
[9] Together with her husband, Henry Mitchell, she served as a mentor at Ohio's United Theological Seminary in the Doctor of Ministry Program.
[11] In addition, they team-taught as visiting professors of homiletics at Atlanta's Interdenominational Theological Center, using a pedagogical style that emphasized dialogue between the two of them.
[6] In 1997, Ella Pearson Mitchell was selected by Ebony Magazine as one of the "15 Best Black Women Preachers" in the United States, in recognition of the "excellent construction and dramatic delivery of her sermons.
"[1] Ella and Henry Mitchell received the 2008 Union Theological Seminary Trailblazer Award, which recognizes outstanding African-American alumni.
[14][15] In 2016, Union Theological Seminary established the Eunice C. Jackson & Ella P. Mitchell Chair in honor of its first two African-American alumnae, with the goal "to promote interdisciplinary explorations at the intersection of religion, race, gender, and women’s studies."