Elizabeth Ann Atkins is a best-selling author, actress, TV host and award-winning journalist who uses a multimedia platform to inspire people to unlock their infinite potential and live with passion, prosperity, health and happiness. Elizabeth's desire to empower others springs from a trailblazing matrix of colorblind love and courage from her mother, an African American and Italian judge, and her father, a former Roman Catholic priest who was English, French Canadian and Cherokee. They taught her to challenge the status quo by writing innovative ideas to edu-tain people. With a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Elizabeth has written nearly 20 books, including novels White Chocolate, Dark Secret and Twilight (with Billy Dee Williams). She also composed My American Success Story: Always the First, Never the Last, a memoir for Roy S. Roberts, once the world's highest-ranking black automotive executive. Current clients include executives, prominent government and civic leaders, physicians, a surgeon, an intuitive medium, a family that triumphed on NBC's The Biggest Loser, an insurance agent and a quadriplegic man who lived his dream to become a record company CEO. Her novellas about empowering women to overcome abuse and identity crises were published in My Blue Suede Shoes: An Anthology and Other People's Skin: An Anthology. A health and fitness enthusiast whose 100-pound weight loss was featured on Oprah, Elizabeth co-hosts a weekly television show, MI Healthy Mind, which promotes wellness by shattering stigmas around taboo topics such as mental illness, addiction and abuse. She is a popular writing coach whose PowerJournalTM program teaches people to enrich their lives with journal-writing. A speaker who promotes human harmony, Elizabeth is represented by The American Program Bureau. She rouses ovations by reciting her autobiographical poem, White Chocolate, and has spoken at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, GM's World Diversity Day, Gannett, 100 Black Men, the NAACP, and many other venues. As an actress, Elizabeth plays a major role in the feature-length film Anything Is Possible, nominated for "Best Foreign Film" by the Nollywood and African Film Critics Association. She composed an original screenplay, Redemption, a gritty drama about a Detroit gangster and a writer. And Elizabeth plays a 1950s journalist in the international shipwreck drama, Are The Passengers Saved? Elizabeth has been a guest on Oprah, Montel, NPR, Good Morning America Sunday, The CBS Evening News, and many national TV shows. After writing her master's thesis about mixed-race Americans, her work appeared in The New York Times, The San Diego Tribune, Essence, Ebony and many publications. Her Detroit News articles on race were nominated for The Pulitzer Prize, and she wrote a biography for the Presidential Medal of Freedom tribute for Rosa Parks. Elizabeth runs, cycles, lifts weights, does yoga, journals and meditates to cultivate a joyous and peaceful mind, body and spirit. JOURNALIST Fox 2 News Metro Detroit. 1997 to 2002, Writer for morning, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. TV news. The Detroit News 1991 to 1995, Race Relations articles nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Covered crime, courts, education and features. Freelancing The New York Times, Ebony, HOUR Detroit, HOUR Home, HOUR Bride, Essence, BET.com, Ms., BLAC Detroit, a Presidential Tribute for Rosa Parks, and a celebration of Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Internships San Diego Tribune (1990), and Lansing State Journal (1989). Elizabeth taught English and Journalism at Wayne State University, Wayne County Community College District and Oakland University. Classes included Honors English/Women in Literature, Poetry, Creative Writing and American Literature.
