Janice S. Ellis, M.A., M.A., Ph.D., is an award-winning author of six books and an award-winning columnist.

A native daughter of Mississippi, she grew up and came of age during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement. Born and reared on a small cotton farm, she was influenced by two converging forces that would set the course of her life.

The first was the fear and terror felt by Blacks because they were seeking to exercise the right to vote, along with other rights and privileges afforded to whites. She became determined to take a stand and not accept the limits of that farm life nor the strictures of oppressive racial segregation and gender inequality. She aspired to have and achieve a different kind of life, not only for herself but for others.

The second was her love of books, the power of words, and her exposure to renowned columnists Eric Sevareid of The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and Walter Lippmann, whose column appeared for more than three decades in over 250 major newspapers across the United States and another 50 newspapers in Europe.

Dr. Ellis has been an executive throughout her career, first in government, then in a large pharmaceutical company, later as President and CEO of a marketing firm, and as President and CEO of a bi-state non-profit child advocacy agency. Along with those positions, she has been writing columns for nearly five decades on race, politics, education, and other social issues for a major metropolitan daily newspaper, a major metropolitan business journal, and for community newspapers. She wrote radio commentary for two years for one of the largest ABC radio affiliates in Wisconsin and subsequently wrote and delivered a two-minute spot on the two largest Arbitron-rated radio stations in the Greater Kansas City area. She has also written for several national trade publications, focusing on healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.

Currently, she is a columnist for the Missouri Independent. She has her own website, JaniceSEllis.com, which houses a collection of her writings and where she continues to write commentary.

Dr. Ellis is an award-winning author of six books. Her most recent book, USING MY WORD POWER: Advocating For A More Civilized Society, Book III: Justice and Equality (2025), is the third book in the Real Advocacy Journalism® series; Book II: Patriotism and Politics (2024). Both books were First-Place winners of the Nellie Bly Nonfiction Journalism Award, received and continue to receive great editorial and customer reviews.

From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream (2018) and the New Edition (2023). Both have received national and international awards, great editorial reviews, and continue to receive great customer reviews.

USING MY WORD POWER: Advocating For A More Civilized Society (2022) has received great editorial reviews and was a First-Place winner of the Nellie Bly Nonfiction Journalism Award. It also won the Midwest Independent Publishers Association Book Award in the Nonfiction – Social Science/Political Science/Culture category.

Shaping Public Opinion: How Real Advocacy Journalism™ Should Be Practiced (2021) won the Nellie Bly Nonfiction Journalism Award and the Gold Medal Award for nonfiction books from the Non-Fiction Author Association. It has received great national editorial reviews and continues to receive great customer reviews.

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