Quantum Communication is a term coined in 2025 by educator and author David B. Ellis to describe a way of communicating that most directly influences outcomes in complex human systems. Although the name is recent, the work itself represents the integration of more than five decades of study, teaching, research, and applied inquiry into ways language, intentions, and actions influence results in what he calls Action Coaching.
Ellis traces the earliest roots of what he named Quantum Communication to his academic training and publications in computer programming languages and systems analysis in the 1970s. Through teaching of programming, he encountered the practical insight that symbolic input could be used to interact with systems too complex to be fully understood mechanistically. Computer systems responded reliably to well-structured inputs, allowing outcomes to be predicted and influenced without exhaustive explanation.
This orientation toward prediction and interaction was deepened through Ellis’s early research in fisheries science. In 1973, he presented a multi-system statistical analysis of fish populations at the American Fisheries Society’s International Meeting. That work was later published as a time-series model examining the effects of reservoir management reinforcing the value of pattern recognition and relational analysis in complex ecological systems.
Ellis’s formal academic work in computer science includes a master’s thesis titled “A FORTRAN pre-processor incorporating macro expansion and dynamic data structures,” completed in 1978 at the South Dakota School of Mines. This work further strengthened his emphasis on mediation between human intention and system behavior—an emphasis that would later reappear in his teaching and coaching methodologies.
In 1976, Ellis began his professional teaching career, teaching computer languages and operating systems. In 1979, he became Co-Director of the Development Center at National College, where he co-created a required, full-credit, first-year experiential course designed to shift students’ relationship to education and life toward self-responsibility.
Across subsequent decades, Ellis articulated these principles through a series of books addressing learning, personal development, career planning, and coaching. These works translated enduring principles into practical frameworks that emphasized action, responsibility, and communication as primary levers for change.
Rationale for Coining a Name
The value of coining the name Quantum Communication was its ability to concisely describe work that had previously been expressed through courses, coaching practices, and published writing rather than through a single unifying term. As cultural language shifted and interdisciplinary thinking became more common, it is useful to name an approach that emphasized non-linearity, relational influence, and outcome sensitivity.
Quantum Communication was therefore named not to introduce a new body of ideas, but to provide coherence to a body of work already tested by Ellis across research, education, and applied practice.
The name reflects a growing readiness to recognize that communication itself functions as a form of action—capable of shaping outcomes in complex human systems beyond linear cause-and-effect models that are based more in Newtonian physics than quantum physics. Ellis will begin teaching Quantum Communications in early 2026
Selected Publications
- Ellis, D. B. Becoming a Master Student. College Survival, Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Company, Copyright 1981. 17 editions in five languages.
- Ellis, D. B. Creating Your Future. Houghton Mifflin Company, Copyright 1981. Multiple editions in four languages.
- Ellis, D. B. Falling Awake. Breakthrough Enterprises Inc., Copyright 1981. Two editions.
- Ellis, D. B., it al. Career Planning. College Survival, Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Company, Copyright 1981. Multiple editions.
- Ellis, D. B. Life Coaching. Crown House Publishing, Copyright 1981. two editions.
- Ellis, D. B. and Lankowitz, S., Human Being –A manual for happiness, health, love, and wealth. Copyright 1981.
- Ellis, D. B. & O’Heeron, M. K., Jr., A Comprehensive Time Series Model for Studying the Effects of Reservoir Management on Fish Populations. Presented at the International meeting of American Fisheries Society, 1973 Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, Copyright 1975.
- Ellis, D. B. A FORTRAN pre-processor incorporating macro expansion and dynamic data structures. Master’s thesis, South Dakota School of Mines, Copyright 1978.
- Ellis, D.B. The EllisSystem. Copyrighted 1997.
- Ellis, D.B., & Linn, P. Learning Power Learning Technologies, Copyright 1995, Multiple editions.
- Ellis, D.B., it al. Course Manual, College Survival, Inc. and Houghton Mifflin Company, Copyright 1983, 5 editions, three languages.
Vita
Ellis held positions at National American University:
- President
- Assistant Dean of Student Services
- Member of the Administrative Board
- Co-director of the Development Center
- Computer programming faculty
Education:
- Honorary Ph.D., Naturopathic Philosophy
- Work towards Ph.D. in Psychology
- Master’s degree in computer sciences
- Bachelor’s degrees in computer science and psychology
By Bill Rentz, Vice President New Breakthroughs, LLC and master certified coach
