Garret M. Ellison

Garret Ellison is an enterprise journalist at MLive Media Group who covers Michigan environment and the Great Lakes. He started his career as a business reporter for the Grand Rapids Press, MLive’s largest newspaper, and has won multiple awards from both the Associated Press Media Editors and the Michigan Press Association. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University and previously taught journalism at Grand Valley State University. Since 2016, he has specialized in reporting on PFAS, or poly- and per-fluorinated “forever chemicals,” and their impact on Michigan’s people and environment. His work has directly influenced state environmental policy and the creation of Michigan’s first state-specific drinking water standards for harmful chemicals. He also broke the story of Nestle Waters North America’s attempt to obtain more Michigan groundwater for bottling, for which received the national Public Notice Journalism Award during a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. His extensive reporting on Nestle, PFAS, the Wolverine World Wide drinking water pollution in Rockford and the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac helped earn him the 2017 Journalist of the Year Award from the Michigan Press Association Foundation. Ellison has one daughter, Olive, and lives in Kalamazoo.