Katherine Ellison Consulting Writer
	kathyellison@comcast.net
	The New Economy of Nature

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Biographical Sketch

Katherine Ellison is a consulting writer with the Center for Conservation Biology. Together with ecologist Gretchen Daily, she is co-author of the book, The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable, to be published in April 2002 by Island Press. More recently, she has been specializing in writing about how human beings are managing and mismanaging our environmental resources, from our atmosphere to the variety of other life forms sharing the planet. Her articles have appeared in magazines including Worth, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly and Latin Trade, and in newspapers including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Prior to her work with the Center for Conservation Biology, Ellison spent 13 years in Latin America as bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers, first in Mexico City and then in Rio de Janeiro. In her more than 22 years as a journalist, she has also reported extensively from Asia and from Africa. She has traveled underground with Eritrean guerrillas fighting the Ethiopian government, reported from the front lines of U.S.-backed wars in Central America, hunted for Nazis in Paraguay and Argentina and spent a week traveling with a band of Huichol Indians during their annual ceremonial peyote hunt in central Mexico. She has been taken hostage by Mexican peasants, chased by killer bees and required to watch more World Cup events than she cares to remember. She now lives in San Anselmo, California, where life has calmed down considerably.

In 1986, Ellison won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for her role in a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News that exposed how Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos had looted the Philippines' treasury and clandestinely purchased properties in the United States. The series led to congressional investigations in the United States and in the Philippines, which contributed to the Marcos' fall that same year. Some of the material became the basis for Ellison's first book, Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines, (McGraw-Hill, 1988).

Other journalism prizes Ellison has won include a first-place award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, in 1997, for coverage of problems with privatizations in Mexico and Argentina; the first-place feature writing award from the Inter-American Press Association, in 1994 & '95, for stories on politics and culture in South America; the Latin American Studies Association Media Award, in 1994, for several years of excellence in regional coverage; the Northern California World Affairs Council award, in 1991, for coverage of conflicts in Central America & Mexico; the Overseas Press Club Award, in 1989, for human rights reporting in Mexico and Nicaragua, and the George Polk Award and the Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, in 1986, for coverage of the Philippines.

Ellison earned her BA in Communication/International Relations at Stanford University in 1979, and returned to Stanford 20 years later as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow, where she studied environmental science and policy.
 

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Publications in collaboration with CCB

Books

Daily, GC and K Ellison. 2002. The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable, Island Press, Washington, DC.

News articles

Odd Allies on the Environment. The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 2002

The Greening of the Bottom Line. The Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2002

Natural Assets. Nature Conservancy, Fall 2002

His Market is a Gas. Time, August 26, 2002

Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Growers Connect to Global Markets. Sustainable Solutions, Ford Foundation, August 2002

Power Shift: Grass Roots Initiatives to Combat Climate Change. Grist Magazine, August 15, 2002

Let's Think of Nature as an Asset. Philadelphia Inquirer, July 21, 2002

Burn Coal, Help a School: It All Evens Out. Fortune, July 15, 2002

The Climate Neutral Challenge. Business for Social Responsibility, July 1, 2002

Finessing the Growth Management Act. Washington CEO, June 2002

Let's Give Nature a Job with Good Pay. Chicago Tribune, June 16, 2002

Banking on the Earth. Boston Globe, June 16, 2002

Ellison, K. The Hot New Trend: Climate Control. The Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2002.

Ellison, K. Swapping Swampland. Fortune, April 15, 2002.

Ellison, K. Banking on Nature. California CEO, April 15, 2002.

Ellison, K. Saving the Earth just might be cheaper than destroying it. The San Jose Mercury News, April 10, 2002.

Ellison, K. Money Really Does Grow on Trees. The Washington Post, April 7, 2002.

Ellison, K. On Warming, Bush is Out of Step. The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24, 2002.

Ellison, K. Land and Eco-Assets for Sale: Conservation Joins Capitalism to Set Aside Wetland Habitat, The Washington Post, Jan. 25, 2002.

Ellison, K. A Looming Threat We Won't Face. The Los Angeles Times, Jan. 20, 2002.

Ellison, K. Ecotourism: The Hotel Salto Chico in Patagonia Embraces the Extreme. Worth, September, 2001.

Ellison, K. A Case of Clout: Eileen Claussen finesses the ground between polluters and environmentalists, which is good news for both. Worth, July/August 2001.

Ellison, K. Estimated Prophet: A bottom line for Mother Nature? Absolutely. Latin Trade Magazine, July 2001.

Ellison, K. A Tree Grows On Wall Street, Fortune magazine, Nov. 27, 2000.

Ellison, K. Historic Deal is Based on Trees' Value in the Environment,
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 10, 2000.

Ellison, K. Trust Seeks to Harvest "Carbon Credits" From Forests,
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 15, 2000.

Ellison, K. Carbon Credits Turn Forests Into Hot New Investment, Latin Trade Magazine, September 2000.

Ellison, K. Teen makes a statement by buying, removing emissions. San Jose Mercury News, August 17, 2000.

Ellison, K. Napa Takes Unique Approach to Floods, San Jose Mercury News, July 31, 2000.

Ellison, K. Reaping CO2, Detroit Free Press, July 14, 2000.

Ellison, K. Wombats, Koalas -- and Investors, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 2000 (also published in Detroit Free Press, San Jose Mercury News, Houston Chronicle, and the Verde webpage).

 

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