Burrell Ellis
W. Burrell Ellis, Jr. is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from The University of Texas at Austin. He has long been recognized by the citizens of Georgia for the vital role he played in public service, and for his deep commitment to the welfare of all. In 2000, while working as a partner in a national law firm, he was elected to the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners. While on the commission, his peers selected him to serve for an unprecedented five consecutive years as their presiding officer.
In 2008, he was overwhelmingly elected as DeKalb County’s Chief Executive Officer, and re-elected in 2012. As CEO of DeKalb County, which covers 240 square miles and twelve municipalities including portions of the City of Atlanta, he managed the county’s $1.2 billion annual budget, 7,000 employees, twenty-six departments, and delivery of services to its 740,000 citizens.
To further what he believes is local government’s responsibility to ensure every young person a quality education, he developed the DeKalb County Scholarship Program in partnership with the DeKalb County school system, raising and awarding over $125,000 in college scholarships to twenty-five deserving high school seniors in the program’s inaugural year. More recently, he served as the first Political Director of the ACLU of Georgia, where having experienced firsthand the pain of unjust targeting by a broken legal system he developed and managed the agency’s policy and advocacy infrastructure related to criminal justice reform. Currently, he serves as Senior Advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban League, leading their Franchise Inclusion Initiative designed to promote and create economic opportunities for diverse communities through business ownership. Intermittently, he is an Adjunct Professor at Georgia State University College of Law. Recently, he conceived and developed a course in Criminal Law Reform examining the role of district attorneys and the impact of the Progressive Prosecution Movement.
Ellis has served in numerous positions of leadership at the regional and national level. These include President of the County Executives of America; Executive Committee, Southeast Region Director, and Board of Directors of the National Association of Counties; Chair of NACo‘s Large Urban County Caucus (representing the 100 largest metropolitan counties in the U.S.); Board of Directors of Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG); Executive Committee of the Georgia Democratic Party; Secretary of the Atlanta Regional Commission; Board of Directors of 100 Black Men of DeKalb County; and as a troop leader in the Boy Scouts of America. He was selected as a panel participant in President Obama’s launching of The White House Office of Urban Affairs.
He is a member in good standing of the State Bar of Georgia and the District of Columbia Bar. His wife, Philippa, who is also an attorney, and Burrell are actively engaged in their community and have worked to instill the value of public service to their teenage children
