Ellie Newman

Born the middle child of five strong-willed, outspoken, door-slamming siblings, I was a super sensitive kid with exceptionally high emotional intelligence, and I needed every ounce of it to navigate the minefields of my eccentric childhood household. It was the 1970s, our living room often transformed into an alternative psychology arena with bataka wielding bioenergetic disciples. Many weekends were spent at assertiveness trainings, dream workshops, EST, and meditation retreats.

Off to college at UCLA, I got a degree in psychology, hoping to make a little sense of the “craziness” of my youth. After a short stint in advertising with Saatchi and Saatchi, I headed east to Georgetown University for a law degree, followed by some rather enlightening years as a divorce mediator, observing good people at their worst. Back in Los Angeles as the proprietor of a coffee shop, I served solace by the espresso shot, until marriage landed me in Palo Alto at the height of the first dot.com boom. I worked as a business communication and strategy coach, helping high growth startups and large enterprises to unleash their organizational potential.

When my husband and I moved our young family to the mountain town of Sun Valley, Idaho, it was again time for reinvention. I am currently the creator and host of the popular weekly radio shows, “That Got Me Thinking,” “Make It So” with Dr. Anny Yusim and “Voices of the Valley.”