The Triple Life of Courtney Ellis

The Triple Life of Courtney Ellis

FEW OF US CAN PACK AS MUCH LIVING AND IMPACT INTO A 24-HOUR PERIOD AS FHSU ALUM COURTNEY ELLIS ‘20, ‘21. By day, she works as a champion for the wrongly incarcerated with the Midwest Innocence Project (MIP) in Kansas City. And in the evening and on weekends, she divides her time between managing her private therapy services practice and chasing a lifelong professional dream vastly different than what she does as a social work professional.

The Midwest Innocence Project (MIP) was founded at the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law in 2000. It operates today as a partnership with UMKC, the University of Missouri, the University of Kansas, the Nebraska Innocence Project, the Iowa State Public Defender’s Wrongful Conviction Division, and other regional organizations and universities. MIP is part of a nationwide network of organizations dedicated to freeing the wrongfully incarcerated. The organization’s mission is to educate about, advocate for, and obtain and support the exoneration and release of wrongfully convicted people.

The staff at the MIP includes around 20 people, but Courtney Ellis is the only licensed professional social worker in the organization. She is responsible for assisting both freed and incarcerated clients and area exonerees in their effort to transition to life outside prison after wrongful incarceration. Her responsibilities include providing case management, crisis intervention, and reentry and support services.

Ellis’ path to this role is not one she would have predicted when she came to Fort Hays State as a transfer student from Dodge City Community College in 2017. Kendal Carswell serves as the field director for the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) degree programs. One of his jobs is to secure capstone clinical experiences known as “practicums” for students in both programs. Carswell is very good at his job. This year alone, he has placed 108 students in 41 communities and environments ranging from schools to hospitals to social services agencies.

In the spring of 2020, Carswell was working on a new relationship with an organization whose noble work intrigued him-the Midwest Innocence Project. After several meetings and phone calls, Carswell convinced the MIP leadership to take on an intern. He knew that he needed to right person with the right skills and temperament to serve as the first social work intern with the organization. He’d known Ellis since her time in the BSW program and knew her to be mature, resourceful, and self-confident.

Carswell worked with her through a challenging BSW practicum experience at Larned State Hospital, the largest psychiatric facility in Kansas. He felt that this experience demonstrated to him that Ellis was not easily discouraged and would bring creativity and thoughtfulness to a role with MIP that had yet to be defined.

Courtney Ellis effectively invented the role of the sole social worker in the organization. She turned an internship opportunity into a full-time position with MIP. Ellis remains one of a handful of social workers currently employed with any of the 71 Innocence network organizations worldwide.

In her relatively short tenure with the organization, Ellis has worked with clients involved in some of the most high-profile wrongful incarceration cases in Kansas City area history, including the case of Kevin Strickland, who spent more than 40 years of a 50-year sentence in prison for a triple murder he did not commit. Ellis and her MIP colleagues are working to help Strickland transition to a life of freedom he has really never known.

Soon after starting her work with MIP, Ellis opened a private therapy practice in Kansas City. She was confident that she had the organizational and time management acumen to make it all work. She was confident she would be able to wrap building her business around her commitments with the MIP. Remarkably, she also felt the time was right to pursue a lifelong dream. She wanted to act, dance, and sing on stage or screen. It didn’t matter to her. She just wanted to take her shot at becoming a performing artist.

This seemingly sudden dive into professional acting was not a venture Ellis stepped into blindly or without preparation. While a student at Hays High School, she began taking voice lessons from FHSU Associate Professor of Music Ivalah Allen.

“I soon discovered that she had a tremendous vocal presence, with range and strength to serve her well as a stage performer,” said Allen. Ellis and Allen continued working together throughout her four years as an undergraduate student at FHSU.

In the fall of 2020, Ellis took a bold leap and auditioned for a role in an independent film. It was a musical set to be filmed in Kansas City. “Nelly Don: The Musical” recounts the life of Nell Donnelly Reed, an early 20th-century Kansas City fashion designer whose dress label, Nelly Don, became known across the nation as a leading manufacturer of stylish yet affordable clothing for more than 50 years.

The Nelly Don story is not just an ode to glamour. The story is about one woman’s pursuit of the American dream in a world where female empowerment was virtually non-existent. It is the story of kidnapping and intrigue, where corrupt political figures, shady business moguls, and the Kansas City mob all play leading roles.

Ellis landed a prominent role in the film in her first professional audition. Soundtrack recording and choreography production began early in 2022, and film production is now nearing its conclusion. The movie is scheduled to debut late in 2023 or early in 2024.

She has parlayed that success into several additional roles, including several TV commercials and several roles in the Kansas City Theater in the Park’s musical production of “School of Rock” this past summer.

Ellis believes she has a responsibility to pay her good fortune forward. This fall, she worked with Kendal Carswell to secure her second MSW practicum intern from FHSU. That intern, Emma Bieker, has been working with Ellis for only a few months, but her new mentor already inspires her.

“I think she’s very brave. She’s a pathfinder in many ways. She’s opened doors for others like me, and she brings a high level of hope and commitment to everything she does,” said Bieker.

What is next for Courtney Ellis? She has grown her private practice and now serves ten clients. She plans to use the income and scheduling flexibility she is creating through her private practice and her work with the Midwest Innocence Project to allow her to continue to pursue a parallel career as a performer.

As if she wasn’t busy enough, Ellis is constantly working on her craft, adding dance and acting training to the voice lessons she has continued taking since leaving FHSU. She recently signed with the Kansas City-based Moxie Talent agency. And like all performers, she knows she is one of more than 100,000 aspiring actors worldwide, all chasing a dream. She also knows from personal experience that fortune favors the bold. Boldness has always been a great strength of Courtney Ellis.

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