Nicquel Terry Ellis is an award-winning journalist who serves as the senior writer for CNN’s Race & Equality team. She joined CNN in November 2020 and much of her work focuses on the intersection of race and politics, education, health equity and the advancement of women of color.

Prior to joining the network, Ellis served as a national correspondent for USA TODAY covering race, inequality and activism. She led much of the newspaper’s coverage of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, and the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted across America. In 2020, she did a one-on-one interview with the mother of Tamir Rice ahead of what would have been his 18th birthday. Ellis also spent six years working in local news at The Detroit News and the Asbury Park Press. In 2018, she wrote an award-winning story about life for residents in one of Detroit’s most dangerous zip codes.

For CNN, Ellis led coverage of the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and its impact on Black and brown women. Her stories have also shed light on missing people of color and the fight to get more attention on their cases. As the nation slowly reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic, Ellis covered the disparities in healthcare access that were laid bare. And in the summer of 2022, Ellis traveled to Jackson, MS where she covered the historic water crisis that left the majority-Black city without clean drinking water.

In addition to writing for CNN Digital, Ellis has made appearances on various shows including CNN New Day, CNN This Morning, CNN Newsroom and Early Start. She has also hosted podcast episodes for the CNN Political Briefing and Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction. Ellis is a five-time winner of the NABJ Salute to Excellence awards including an honor in 2022 for an interactive project on the maternal health crisis facing Black women. Ellis has been awarded twice by the New Jersey Press Association.

A native of Saginaw, MI, Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

Ellis is an active member of NABJ and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She lives in Atlanta with her husband Andre, daughter Harper and dog Chase.