Memorial Day Program - Courageous Accountability: The Battle For Honor
May 26, 2020 12:00 PM
Col Lee Ellis (Ret), USAF
Memorial Day Program - Courageous Accountability: The Battle For Honor

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Lee Ellis is President and founder of Leading with Honor®, a leadership and team development consulting and coaching company, and FreedomStar Media®, a publishing company that provides leadership resources and training.  He focuses on organizational integrity, operational effectiveness and personal accountability for enterprise, government and not-for-profit leaders.  For more than 20 years, he has served as an executive coach and a corporate consultant in the areas of hiring, teambuilding, leadership, human performance development, and succession planning. His approach to maximizing leadership performance has been implemented by Fortune 500 clients, senior executives and C-Level leaders in telecommunications, healthcare, insurance, energy, IT, automotive, military, and not-for-profit sectors.

A prolific writer, blogger and thought leader, Ellis has authored or co-authored 6 books, is a nationally-recognized speaker, has been interviewed on all the major networks and served as a speaker in various industry sectors throughout the world.

Ellis holds a B.A. from UGA,  M.S. Troy University, and a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College and the Air War College. Lee supervised, educated, and trained officers for the last 17 years of his Air Force career. He served as the Vice Commandant of the Squadron Officer School, the Air Force’s leadership school for captains. He completed his Air Force career as Professor of Aerospace Studies and Commander of Air Force ROTC at the University of Georgia.

Ellis began his career in the Air Force. During the Vietnam War, his aircraft was shot down over enemy territory and he was held as a POW in various prisons in the Hanoi area for more than five years. As a military officer, his experiences as a POW piqued his interest in leadership performance in difficult situations, leading to further research and academic pursuit in the area of measuring and optimizing human performance and leadership effectiveness. After repatriation he returned to flying duties with increasing positions of leadership. Rising to the rank of colonel before retirement, Ellis’ assignments included duty as a pilot, flight instructor, staff officer, chief of flight standardization and evaluation, flying squadron commander, and supervisor in higher education. He was awarded two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with Valor device, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Prisoner of War Medal for his service in Vietnam. In addition, he was awarded four Air Force Commendation Medals and four Meritorious Service Medals for performance excellence. Lee is also a 2014 inductee into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame and the 2015 DAR Medal of Honor Recipient for a lifetime of patriotic service as a military officer and spokesman for leading with honor.

Ellis and his wife Mary have four grown children and six grandchildren and reside Atlanta.

INTRODUCTION: Tom Gay
INVOCATION: Cara Schroeder