Voyage LA Interview – Rising Stars: Meet Zachary Ellison
Published February 26, 2024.
Link: https://voyagela.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-zachary-ellison-of-lawndale/
Rising Stars: Meet Zachary Ellison
Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Ellison.
Hi Zachary, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Today, I’m an independent journalist and a whistleblower, so what I write is what’s known as whistleblower journalism. The reason I went public as a whistleblower was the “October Surprise” of the LA Fed Tapes, an event that I had feared would come from my time in the University of Southern California, Office of the Provost. I worked there from October 2015 to August 26, 2022, when I was subjected to a hostile termination. I became suspicious that something was amiss from observing a senior official at USC speak and predicted that he would appear in the middle of leaked materials. This was discussed during the termination and reported to a senior security official at the university after the termination hearing.
My role was in academic operations and legal matters for the Provost’s Office, and I took it very seriously. We had difficult times navigating the Carmen Puliafito scandal, the former Dean of the Keck School of Medicine, but it was the George Tyndall sexual abuse scandal, the former campus gynecologist who recently died, that shook me the most. The victims were classmates, and the impact on the university community was profound. The Mark Ridley-Thomas and Marilyn Flynn bribery scandal that followed further corroded trust in the university. What moved me to action, though, was the lack of consistency in following the Resolution Agreement that President Carol Folt and former USC Chairman Rick Caruso signed.
USC failed to implement numerous critical components of the Agreement, and it became alarming, and especially after we had a series of drug-facilitated sexual assaults at the Row, where campus Greek Life is based. I pushed the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, with a formal complaint to follow up on the Agreement. Even today, USC has failed to implement critical transparency measures that would confront the ongoing crisis of sexual violence at USC. Last Friday, I was the only other person than the victims to attend the final criminal trial date for Tyndall, no one else from inside the administration has gone public about their experiences during that time. Victims allege an extensive cover-up exists.
Prior to working for the Provost’s Office, I was a graduate student at the School of Public Policy and worked on as a student on USC’s university-community partnerships program. I grew up in Hermosa Beach and Pasadena and attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, for my undergraduate studies. I served in Americorps with the Hawaii State Parks at Diamond Head. I was Barack Obama’s one-millionth online campaign contributor in 2008, giving $25 dollars at precisely the right moment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This has not been a smooth road. USC created false pretext for terminating me, and truth be told, after years of experiencing retaliation, and with the way it ended, it was sort of an inevitable conclusion. I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from the confrontation; the alienation that comes from retaliation can be quite isolating. The stress of losing your financial health combined with the erosion of your personal relationships is paramount. USC does this deliberately, and my experience was nearly identical to what’s described by a July 2020 whistleblower who goes to arbitration this March. USC denies that it engages in any wrongdoing in relation to internal critics, and they inculcate an almost cult-like environment.
Where I’ve gained strength has been from the journalism community and from activists as well, and also from both the victims of George Tyndall and young women who are struggling to navigate USC’s processes for sexual misconduct, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Being harassed erodes self-confidence and your sense of worth, and so it is a struggle to power through these traumatic episodes. I kept my vow to go public if the election was attacked, but despite having correlative evidence in the leaked materials, the infamous “connect the dots” method combined with scandals this winter at both the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Times, both of which have close relationships with the university, it’s still in dispute whether the leak was the result of a lone actor, or a syndicate as I’ve suggested and written about as a journalist.
Whistleblowers want to be believed. We have unique experiences, and when people question and disparage the claims being made and surrender to the idea that accountability is impossible, it can be very frustrating and difficult to remain hopeful. I’m proud today to be working with the Whistleblowers of America organization to protect and support people on this pathway.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve really enjoyed expanding my focus from politics, investigations, and media coverage in Los Angeles more in a broader civil rights direction. To me, it’s always important to value those who are most vulnerable and in their moments of need. My writing is published on Substack, which is a major blogging platform, and I’m currently doing a second run of my series on Medium. My degree in history is valuable as a storyteller, so even as I write in a long-format journalism style, almost magazine-like, it’s done in an iterative fashion. The plot moves forward with events from the past into the future, and the direction unfolds into new ideas.
It’s an almost Dickensian style, and it’s also quintessentially gonzo journalism. I could probably still write in AP format if I needed to from some of my past journalism experiences, but I enjoy doing something different, even a little edgy. I cover activism in Los Angeles in a way that’s a deeper dive than what you get in other publications and corruption in a way that’s provocative without dismissing people without consideration. I’m grateful particularly for the support of Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times, who has been an excellent mentor to me throughout this most difficult period of my life. Gustavo says the job of a good journalist is to comfort the downtrodden and the vulnerable and to afflict the most powerful with discomfort from truth-telling.
I feel quite often that because I’m engaged in non-traditional journalism, that I’m able to put more depth and research into my story parts sometimes while also delivering an intensely personal story. I have many critics, but that’s part of the job. I’m really grateful to those in the USC community who have come to me lately to share their own stories of trauma and difficulties.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I do more than just write, lately I’ve taken to doing my own photojournalism. Something I always had a passion for as a younger person and that I’m renewing lately. One of the first times I went to USC was for a school journalism day, and my dream was to do exactly that; so at present, I’m working only with a GoPro Hero 11 Black, but I’d like to step up from an action camera to more traditional photography soon. I’m really great at working with landscapes, including at night, which is known as nightscaping, and when I’m not doing journalism, I’m usually in the mountains, whether the San Gabriel’s, the Santa Monica’s, or the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County. Reverence and respect for the natural environment I came to value most during my time in Hawaii, prior to that I was more of a city kid, and less outdoorsy. We have to do more to expose young people to nature.
Link: https://voyagela.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-zachary-ellison-of-lawndale/
Contact Info:
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachary_ellison_official/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zacharyobama/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZacharyObama
Link: https://voyagela.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-zachary-ellison-of-lawndale/
Great interview
U look so much h younger w hair ! U should grow it back !