Riki Ellison
MDAA Chairman and Founder
Mr. Riki Ellison is the Founder and Chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance; a non-profit organization launched in 2002 with a singular purpose and mission to drive for the deployment, development, and evolution of missile defense. Mr. Ellison has been involved with missile defense since 1980, being introduced to it by then Governor Ronald Reagan’s Senior Defense Advisor, Dr. William R. Van Cleave and Dr. Edward Teller. Since its founding, the organization has emerged as the expert voice on missile defense in the world. Mr. Ellison has been in attendance of over 278 missile defense tests, visited 770 U.S. and allied missile defense bases and platforms, and has advocated for missile defense in all 50 states and 31 countries.
Amongst the achievements of Mr. Ellison is the creation and building of two historic missile defense and veteran public memorials. One memorial is located at Vandenberg AFB in California, honoring President Ronald Reagan, and the other is located at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, dedicated with the late Senator Daniel Inouye. Mr. Ellison was awarded the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara in December 2011 and the German Air Force Air Defense Missile Badge in October 2018. Mr. Ellison also established the annual U.S. and Allied “Missile Defender of the Year Award Ceremony.” These awards are given to the best missile defense soldiers, sailors, airman, guardians, and national guardsmen from each of the military services involved with missile defense in the United States and among allied nations. There have been 78 DOY events hosted in eight countries that have recognized 967 DOY Awardees from 22 different nations since 2011.
Fostering collaboration between the military and academia, Mr. Ellison and MDAA created three academic programs in partnership with the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy and Viterbi School of Engineering USC SHIELD Executive Program: the University of Arizona Near Space Studies Institute (ANSSI) and the AETOS Executive Program and The ARTEMIS Executive Program in collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi. These programs are designed to ignite a Critical Thinking cauldron and cadre of missile defense leaders across the spectrum on the intersection of public policy and engineering to produce impactful capstones with direct policy outcome in making the nation and the world a safer place.
In 2006, Mr. Ellison founded the Youth Impact Program for disadvantaged and at-risk youth in our nation’s inner cities. There have been 48 Youth Impact Programs in 15 of our nation’s major cities and major universities. The Youth Impact Program has been recognized twice by the United States Congress in Senate and House Congressional Resolutions for its overall achievements, innovation, and impact. Since the beginning, YIP has impacted 3,693 at-risk youth, 793 NCAA athletes, 164 public school teachers, 169 U.S. Marines, 126 U.S. Army Soldiers, and 38 U.S. Air Force Airmen. Students who attended our 2022 programs on average increased their Stem scores by 40%, language art scores by 27%, and mathematics by 22%.
Mr. Ellison was also involved in supporting wounded warriors of the United States military, and those with traumatic brain injury. In 2011, Mr. Ellison brought the National Football League and the United States Army together on TBI that resulted in a partnership announced in 2012 by the Commissioner of the NFL and the Chief of the United States Army.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Ellison played professional football for 10 years as a starting middle linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Vegas Raiders, winning three Super Bowl championships in 1984, 1988 and 1989. He was the first New Zealander to play in the NFL and the first New Zealander to win a Super Bowl. Mr. Ellison was inducted into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame in 2017 and later the New Zealand Māori Sports Hall of Fame in 2024. Ellison played college football at the University of Southern California, winning a National Championship and two Rose Bowls following a State High School Football Championship in Arizona. Mr. Ellison earned a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations with a graduate emphasis on Defense and Strategic Studies from the University of Southern California in 1983. Mr. Ellison attended the National Security Seminar at the Army War College in 2009 and 2020 and the National Security Seminar at the Air War College in 2011. Mr. Ellison also attended the University of Notre Dame, where he attended a Business Management and Entrepreneurial program in 2013.
