​As the principal strategist of PR firm Qualls Communications, Ellen Qualls advises ​organizations, ​leaders​,​ and aspiring leaders in the public​, ​political​, private, and nonprofit​ sectors. She helps develop compelling messages, media strategies, and crisis responses. She does coaching for media appearances, speeches, and debates. 

 

In the Biden Administration, ​Ellen​ joined the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2021 as Chief Communications Officer, seeing the office through leadership transitions and major policy responses to the climate crisis, pandemic, and tech accountability issues. ​Ellen also served pro bono as a press and communications lead on the Biden-Harris Transition, helping senior Department of Justice nominees through Senate confirmation, including the head of the Civil Rights Division – just as she had for President Obama’s first Secretary of Energy.​

 

Ellen served as Senior Advisor for Strategic Planning to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for all four years of her first historic speakership, helping coordinate communications among House and Senate Democrats and the White House on the Affordable Care Act, the Recovery Act, Wall Street Reform, and other major legislation. Ellen was a senior communications advisor for five years to then-Governor, now Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, from his inauguration to leaving office with an 80% approval rating in the last Washington Post pol​l, as well as for his federal leadership PAC​.

 

​In politics, Ellen was Director of Surrogate Communications for President Obama’s re-election in 2012​, served as senior advisor to Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s winning​ 2013​ campaign,​ advised former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring through campaigns and two terms in statewide office, and​ worked with​ candidates for office in California, Illinois, Mississippi, ​and ​Texas​.​​

 

From 2015 to 2018, Ellen led communications and public affairs for a residential renewable energy and energy efficiency financing company in southern California. Ellen was a 2011 Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard, has an English degree from the University of Virginia, and is a former TV, radio, and weekly newspaper reporter, inducted in 2023 into the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association Hall of Fame.