Ellen Urbani is the author of the memoir When I Was Elena (The Permanent Press, ’06), a Book Sense Notable selection documenting her life in Guatemala in the early ’90s during the final years of that country’s civil war. The book is housed in the permanent collection at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, and selected stories are slated for inclusion in anthologies documenting the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps in 2011. Other personal essays have appeared in a variety of pop-culture collections and regional publications since her college years when she studied literature at the University of Alabama.

After returning from Guatemala, Ellen obtained a master of arts degree in art therapy, specializing in illness/trauma survival. In this field, she is a renowned speaker on the national lecture circuit, and her work is the subject of an Oscar-qualified short documentary, "Paint Me a Future." She is considered an expert on the emotional repercussions of bio-terror and disaster, serving as a former mental health specialist for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as an advisory board member at the Annenberg Center for Health Science Research. This therapeutic perspective informs her characterization of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in her recently-completed novel, Rose by Another Name.

Ellen lives in Portland, Oregon with her two young children where she teaches writing at Portland Community College and is a book reviewer for The Oregonian. More about her work can be found at www.ellenurbani.com.