Ghanaian-American philanthropist turned beauty queen, Dr Ellen Osei James continues to bring hope to women, youths, families and less privileged through her charity projects in Africa and beyond.
The mother of four who was crowned at the Mrs New Jersey America 2021 pageant has also launched a program, the Super Role Models, to support and encourage mothers to exercise their family responsibilities diligently and assume leadership positions, while reclaiming their beauty.
On the move to set up the platform, the beauty queen and mental health therapist, said:" The idea behind Super Role Models is to support aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs facing mental and physical health challenges to identify their inner power and beauty, discover their passion, and develop a greater societal purpose."
Ellen is a Co-Founder of Raising HOPE, a non-profit organization that has provided resources that enhance quality of life for orphans and families in USA, Ghana, Nigeria, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Canada to date.
Adding on the passion to engage in community development and humanitarian activities, the Master of Science degree holder in occupational therapy from Columbia University, NY, and Doctorate of Movement Science also from Columbia University, said: "I have a strong passion to support individuals in obtaining optimal quality of life in all areas of functioning.
"I also try to use my life as a template to inspire other women and moms to rewrite their story and follow their dreams despite the challenges of life and motherhood and redefine what it means to be beautiful".
Dr James says that her greatest accomplishments to date is having two babies and defending her doctoral dissertation in less than two years, competing and winning the title of Mrs New Jersey America just four weeks after giving birth, and competing at Mrs America 10 weeks postpartum.
Akeju, a director at Prime Music Partners and Aflik, who's currently working on her educational project (Dr Ellie's theraPLAY), commended her for devoting most of her life to charity work.