Ellis Cose

Ellis Cose is executive producer, host and writer for AGAINST THE ODDS, a multimedia documentary series that debuts on public radio stations this April 2009 with four hour-long radio documentaries. Public Radio International (PRI) is the distributor.

A leading observer of our times, Cose is a best-selling author, educator and contributing editor (since 1993) for Newsweek magazine. He is a former chairman of the editorial board and an editorial page editor of the New York Daily News. Cose began his journalism career as a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times – becoming, at the age of 19, the youngest editorial page columnist ever employed by a major Chicago daily. He is also a popular campus lecturer and public speaker.

In addition to having served as a columnist, editor and national correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times, Cose has been a contributor and press critic for Time magazine, president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Journalism Education, chief writer on management and workplace issues for USA Today (where he has also served as an occasional columnist and member of the board of contributors) and a member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press. He has also been a fellow at the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University, at the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, a senior fellow and director of energy policy studies at the Washington-based Joint Center for Political Studies, and a consultant to the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.
A best-selling author, some of Cose’s books include Killing Affirmative Action: Would Ending it really Result in a Better, More Perfect Union?; Bone to Pick: On Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation and Revenge; Beyond Brown v. Board: The Final Battle for Excellence in American Education; and The Envy of the World.

A Chicago native, Cose holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Illinois, Chicago and a master’s degree in Science, Technology and Public Policy from George Washington University. He resides in New York City with his family.