About Advisory 83
The thinking behind the work.
Advisory 83 exists because consequential organizational challenges rarely respect disciplinary boundaries. Strategy, story, and system have to be designed together.
Founder & Managing Principal
Dr. Aerial Ellis
Dr. Ellis is a strategist, researcher, educator, executive coach, and entrepreneur. Her work spans executive coaching, strategic communications, organizational culture, research, entrepreneurship, and higher education.
That range is the point. Leaders rarely need another plan in isolation. They need someone who can examine the conditions surrounding a decision, help articulate why the direction matters, and design the practices that carry it into everyday work. Dr. Ellis and the Advisory 83 team bring the discipline of scholarship and the pragmatism of executive experience to that task informing how Advisory 83 approaches Strategy, Storytelling, and Systems.
Scholarly rigor
Applied research that tests assumptions before they become strategy.
Executive advisory
Senior-level counsel and coaching for leaders carrying consequential decisions.
Entrepreneurial perspective
A builder's sense of risk, momentum, and what it takes to move.
Strategic communications
Narratives that help people understand direction and their role in it.
Cultural intelligence
Attention to the human dynamics that shape what becomes possible.
Facilitation
Designing the room for complex conversations and real decisions.
Education
Ed.D.
University of Southern California
M.S., Communication
Middle Tennessee State University
B.S., Journalism
Tennessee State University
Certification & appointments
Executive Leadership Certification
UCLA Extension / National Organization of Workforce Diversity
Fellow
The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations
Wells Fargo Endowed Chair & Distinguished Professor
North Carolina Central University
Past President, Board of Trustees
The PRSA Foundation
International Coaching Federation Certification
The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CAPP) Institute
Corporate Board
Delta Dental of Tennessee
Business Advisor
Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women in Business