Reginald Ellis is an associate professor of history and the assistant dean in the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Florida A&M University. Ellis specializes in the history of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and African American leaders during the Jim Crow era. His first manuscript, Between Washington and Du Bois: The Racial Politics of James Edward Shepard, is an analytical biography of James Edward Shepard, the founding president of North Carolina Central University, located in Durham, North Carolina, was published in November 2017 by the University Press of Florida. In 2018 Ellis co-edited the anthology The Seedtime: The Work and The Harvest: New Perspectives on the Black Freedom Struggle in America with Jeffrey Littlejohn and Peter Levy.
Along with his academic services, Ellis remains active in the community by participating in a number of capacities. He was recently elected to serve on the board of directors of the Florida Humanities Council and is a member of Leadership Tallahassee Class 31, also served as member of its Board of Governors. He is also a member of Leadership Florida Connect Class IX, a past member of the Board of Directors for the Legal Aid Foundation Tallahassee. Also, Dr. Ellis remains active in a host of professional and academic organization including the Gamma Mu Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and a host of historical associations including the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the Southern Conference on African and African American Studies. Reggie believes that the professional division is a vital resource that functions in support of all historians.