Learn More About Our Race And Ethnic Relations News Aggregator
USAonRace.com is an online magazine dedicated to increasing a better understanding about race and ethnic relations — about people of different colors and cultures.
Our history began in the summer of 2008 with the launch of RiseUp™, a weekly print and online magazine about race relations in the USA and around the world. RiseUp™ arrived on a crowded media stage of dailies, weeklies and special-interest magazines. Its focus was race and racial tension — a “beat” often overlooked by the mainstream press as a standard feature. If offered a fresh take on one of the most important issues facing contemporary society. The print version appeared as an insert in twelve (12) national newspapers, including The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among others.
Despite an overwhelming response and a debut circulation of over 4 million, an economic downturn, as well as reduced advertiser and investor spending, forced the newly-launched print version to end.
USAonRace.com was originally launched in 2008 along with the print version as a monthly E-Magazine, as USARiseUp.com*, with monthly issues published in a downloadable magazine format. In July 2011, the format was changed to one that allows articles about race and ethnicity to be posted and archived in their respective departments as featured sections on the website. Articles from any and all departments and featured sections can be accessed and downloaded based upon membership and subscription options.
*NOTE: Visitors will be able to view the original E-magazines and YouTube videos, bearing the original name, USARiseUp, that are archived on the website.
What is our mission?
Our mission is to inform, educate, enlighten, entertain and inspire us to act as members of one humanity as well as shed light on issues of racial inequality, prejudice, stereotyping and more . Each day, the content at USAonRace.com magazine celebrates the differences that make us unique, and sheds light on those issues that divide us, while rediscovering and reaffirming the many things we hold in common.
Our goal is to provide a forum where everyone (and we mean, everyone) can engage in an ongoing conversation about race matters – topics they may not be comfortable chatting about in their office hallways, street corners, grocery-store aisles and even their own living rooms.
We intend to do that through a wide range of in-depth and informative articles, spread over the departments and feature sections whose focus mirror our everyday lives.
Each day, our fully-downloadable PDF-formatted articles will cover issues in the areas of business, cultural uniqueness, education, health and politics through the lens of race and ethnicity.
Why the name USAonRace?
It is because we hope to engage people all across America to have an unprecedented open, honest, and ongoing conversation about how race and ethnicity is still very much an issue in our lives—where we live, where we work, where we worship—even where we chose to eat, shop, or go to school.
Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D.
Publisher & Executive Editor
Our Team
Janice S. Ellis: Publisher & Executive Editor
Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D., a native daughter of Mississippi, is Founder and Publisher of www.USAonRace.Com, an online educational magazine dedicated to increasing understanding across race, culture and ethnicity. The magazine covers race-related news and events in the areas of education, business, health, politics, and cultural uniqueness. Dr. Ellis launched an online dialogue on USAonRace.com, National Collegiate Dialogue on Race Relations with professors and students from some of the nation’s major colleges and universities participating. USAonRace.com has additional features and resources to help understand our differences, bridge our divisions, and celebrate our commonalities. Dr. Ellis is also Founder and CEO, USA Youth Institute on Race, www.youthonrace.org .The mission of the Youth Institute on Race is to assist parents and educators in building awareness and understanding of race and ethnic diversity among children and students. Dr. Ellis brings 30 years of public and private sector experience to the leadership of to this work. She has written for professional and trade publications, and has been a newspaper and radio columnist throughout her career. She writes for USAonRace and has her own blog, Cause and Civility. Dr. Ellis holds a Ph.D. and two Master of Arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin.
Vice President, Business Development:
Christopher S. Ellis
Christopher S. Ellis has over 13 years of experience in marketing. He has worked in a variety of industries including Architectural/Engineering, Public Relations, High-Tech, Health Care and Small Business Development. Mr. Ellis has been the chief architect of the business plan which will guide and focus USAonRace's success in the national and global marketplace.
Managing Editor:
Katherine Nussberger
Kathy joined our team in October 2009 after more than 15 years as a journalist in both Arizona and Idaho,and managing editor of two hardcopy newspapers in North Idaho. She was also the online editor for a website news source in the same region, which she later developed into a hardcopy publication for her local community. Kathy worked as a co-editor of a professional print and online newsletter that delved into the issues surrounding the struggling teens industry of private schools and programs throughout the world. In her spare time, Kathy worked as the regional director for a non-profit organization that strives to close the multicultural gap between our American youth and high school students from over 75 countries throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Central America, and several states from the former Soviet Union.
Our Writers:
D.A. Barber spent nine years in Los Angeles as both a print and radio journalist (commercial and non-commercial radio). He received a 1981 Los Angeles Press Club Award for work on a two-part print series on smog, wrote for virtually every major publication in the area, and authored over 90 local and national radio reports as well as producing several weekly radio news shows - one which aired state-wide in California, and another state-wide in Arizona. Barber went on to briefly become news director for an east coast commercial radio station and feature writer for the Utica Observer-Dispatch before returning to the southwest as Program Director for a non-commercial radio station, producer of two non-commercial radio documentaries on environmental issues, writer for the University of Arizona, and writer/analyst for a Energytrend.com. Barber wrote for the University of Arizona News Services’ Report on Research for six years, and co-authored the first edition of Insider’s Guide to Tucson. His print material has appeared in a number of national and regional publications, including Backpacker, American Desert Magazine, New Age Journal, In Business, East West Journal, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Reader, Ecology Digest, Tucson Weekly, Inside Tucson Business, Biz AZ, and Los Angeles Herald Sunday Magazine and Huffington Post.
Marlene Caroselli, Ed.D. (www.saatchionline.com/LainaCelano), writes extensively about education and business topics. Among her 60+ books are several for teachers and trainers — among them, 500 Creative Classroom Concepts. Additionally, she has authored Hiring and Firing, The Critical Thinking Tool Kit, and Principled Persuasion, named a Director's Choice by Doubleday Book Club.
Rita Cook is a writer/editor specializing in a variety of subjects including health, travel, eco-friendly, and lifestyle. With over 1200 articles to her credit in the past 13 years and six books, she is also the Editor of The Insider Magazine and Managing Editor for Celeb Staff Magazine. She started her career in Chicago working with well-known Sun Times Columnist Irv Kupcinet, writes a weekly eco-friendly column called “The Green Life” for the Dallas Morning News and worked on many other national and regional publications. Cook, a member of the Texas Auto Writer’s Association, also hosts Sunday morning in Los Angeles’ on KPRO’s The Insider Mag Radio Show with featured segments such as, “I’m Standing Here” and “Behind the Wheel.” Her latest book, published by History Press called “A Brief History of Fort Worth” was released in May 2011.
Manny Otiko has worked in the journalism field for about 18 years. His experience includes stints as a reporter at a daily newspaper, writing for a state agency and several Southern California public relations agencies. Manny has been published in The Riverside Press Enterprise, The LA Sentinel, The LA Wave, The Washington Afro-Am , IE Weekly, Our Weekly, Patch.com, Bleacher Report, PR Daily and News in Black. He has covered a wide variety of subjects such as soccer, media, public relations and business.
Rita Rizzo, CMC, is the Principal of Rizzo & Associates, an Ohio based consulting and training firm. She is a Certified Management Consultant with a Masters Degree in Training and Human Resource Management. Rita has over 27 years experience as a trainer and has provided training and consulting services for over 8000 audiences from corporations, associations, and government. A prolific writer, Rita has authored two books, co-authored two books, ghost written seven books, and author of over 100 articles for web and print magazines.
Russell Roberts is an award-winning fulltime freelance writer. He has written and published over four dozen books for both children and adults, including the best-sellers Down the Jersey Shore and Discover the Hidden New Jersey. Roberts lives in New Jersey with his wife, daughter, and a fat, fuzzy, diabolical Calico cat named Rusti.
Alonzo Weston joined the News-Press in 1989 as an intern. He currently covers education and mental health and is also an award-winning columnist. The St. Joseph native is a 2002 graduate of the inaugural class of the Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He has been voted the city's favorite newspaper columnist for the past 13 years. Alonzo has served on the St. Joseph library board and is a research associate and chairman of the black archives for the St. Joseph Museums Inc. He received the YWCA/NAACP Kelsey Beshears Racial Justice Award in 2005. The East Side Rotary Club also presented Alonzo with its Community Service Award in 2004. He received a Department of Mental Health Media Award in 2002 for a series of stories on local mental health issues. He also has won numerous Missouri Press Association awards for his columns, features, and investigative reporting. He's been published in magazines and has had byline stories in the Nashville Tennessean and the New York Daily News. Alonzo also created a journalism workshop for minority youth called Reporting L.I.V.E.
Information Credit: St. Joseph News-Press