Katherine Ellis

I am a retired professor of English literature whose only full-time job has been in the English Department of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was a great job and included working and teaching in the area of women's studies. When I retired I realized that I really missed teaching, so I started a writing program for veterans at the Harlem Vet Center. I am looking to expand by setting up writing programs at the other vet centers in the other boroughs of New York City. I am also a member of the congregation of Riverside Church, the cathedral-like structure that can be seen from many parts of the city. I'm a mother and also a very lucky grandmother of three wonderful grandchildren, one now working at Facebook in Seattle, a second in her freshman year at the University of Michigan, and the third is a high school student in Vienna, Virginia, where her parents live. My son is a sought-after health care economist with degrees from Stanford, Harvard's Kennedy School, and MIT. His wife has worked as a labor room nurse and now teaches kindergarten. I also sing choral sacred music and have been in several choruses, most recently the Inspiration Choir that performs gospel music once a month at the Riverside Church, which is not too far from where I live in Manhattan.