Ellen Garrison Email and Phone Number

Personal assistant to Assemblymember Mark Stone and office manager for his Capitol team. Scheduled meetings, handled Assemblymember Stone’s external communications under his direction, ensured the office was stocked and answered constituent requests. Aided in press communication strategy. Ended when Asm. Stone retired.

Designed and wrote campaign communications and helped craft post-legislative session strategy while on approved leave from the Assembly. Created internal and external communications plans, drafted content, pitched sources and placed stories, created newsletters, and managed social media accounts for multiple clients.

Pivoted from a fast-paced, public facing serving environment to tap room development and farm work during the pandemic. Helped design the workflow for a new site, build-out for the tap room, and set up for grand opening. Served tens of thousands of customers in a high stress, high volume outdoor environment. Assisted with scheduling, running heavy equipment, office tasks, inventory management, website editing and began the permiting process for a mobile kitchen.

Compiled research briefs on a variety of topics for an online contract-driven research firm. Presented collected information in a proprietary format for a wide range of corporate clients.

Covering City Hall and regional governments

Working as a general assignment reporter as part of the Pulliam Fellow program for both the metro desk and the breaking news team.

Worked as a general assignment intern, producing daily, breaking news and enterprise stories on subjects ranging from crowdfunded restaurants to new library programs. Took photos and made videos where appropriate to enhance the story. Averaged three dailies a week.

Investigative journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism: extensively researched and analyzed multiple legal documents, and collaborated both with other students and professional reporters. Worked with Watchdog’s partners the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV.

International development work: worked with a team of interns to propose, plan and implement a sustainable asset-based community development project in a small village in Uganda. Required immersion in a community that speaks a different language, close collaboration, extensive research, organization, efficient time management and a strong commitment to the work and the project.

Covered Congress, government agencies and events like the State of the Union as a mobile, breaking news journalist. Reported and filed from the field, produced multi-media accompaniments and promoted daily story pitches.

The Protest is Northwestern’s social justice magazine. Covered the protests at the NATO summit in Chicago in May 2012. Also covered the November 2012 election process and wrote the 2012 fall issue’s cover story about the Obama administration’s use of drones abroad.

Worked as a fact-checker, editor and writer. Worked closely with the web editor to upload articles to the website using a Wordpress platform. Required ability to manage several assignments at once.

Worked on the design desk for The Daily Northwestern, one of the most widely-renowned college newspapers in the country. Designed page layouts and graphics to accompany stories. Required proficiency in InDesign and Illustrator.

Conducted individual research. Collaborated with a team of reporters. Required a large weekly time commitment and dedication to social change. Covered issues such as affordable housing, women in manufacturing and low-cost dental care.