Charles Ellison

Public Affairs senior fellow

Charles is a Senior Fellow in Public Affairs for the Smart Surfaces Coalition where he advances the organization's media outreach activities, provides advocacy on urgent climate issues through creative content and conversations, and facilitates awareness of smart surface solutions to policymakers. 

An award-winning veteran public affairs expert, Charles is also Principal & Chief Strategist of B|E Strategy, a 2024 Reed Awards finalist based in the Washington, D.C. region, as well as founding Publisher of theBEnote.com. He is a 2023 Emerson Collective "Climate Pivot" Fellow and Founding Lecturer for the Civic Literacy and Media Influence Institute at Learn4Life in California. In addition, he was a Visiting Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet and a Senior Advisor to the Center for New Politics and Policy at the University of Denver.

He also directs the Council on Communities of Color at the Council of State Governments.

Charles formerly hosted weekly on SiriusXM's daily politics channel then formerly executive produced a daily public affairs broadcast on WURD radio while creating ecoWURD, the first-ever regular environmental justice program featured on Black media. He served as National Politics Correspondent for The Philadelphia Tribune and Contributing Politics Editor for The Root, as well as a Contributing Editor to The Philadelphia Citizen. He is a recipient of the NAACP's Leadership 500 Award, a Top 40 Under 40 Washington, D.C. Award recipient and Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists' Print Journalist of the Year nominee. In addition, he's a weekly co-host on the nationally syndicated radio and SiriusXM broadcast "Keeping It Real w/ Rev. Al Sharpton." He lives in the D.C.-area with his wife Dian, Co-Principal of B|E Strategy, and is the father of three wonderful daughters.