Ashley leads communication and outreach strategy, events, and partner relations for corporate and higher education partners working to increase the STEM-ready talent pool. Additionally, she leads Million Women Mentors, a movement to increase the confidence and interest of women/girls to pursue STEM careers and leadership opportunities through the power of mentoring. She joins STEMconnector from the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute where she was instrumental in helping to launch the To&Through Project to provide stakeholders in education with actionable research, data, and resources on the milestones that matter most for high school and college success.

Ashley’s passion for advancing opportunities for youth stems from a six-year teaching career in Chicago, where she taught high school English in both urban and suburban schools after earning her bachelor’s degree in Adolescent Language Arts Education from Miami University of Ohio. Wanting to affect greater change in the field than she felt she could from within the classroom, Ashley earned a masters degree in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she also developed her talent for event organization as co-chair of TEDxHGSE, bringing together speakers and performers for a licensed TED event to celebrate innovation in education, technology, and the arts. She has also volunteered and sat on the associate board of various mentoring and youth organizations including iMentor Chicago, SOS Children’s Villages Illinois, OneGoal, and GROWCommunity. She is excited to combine her communications, event management, and youth expertise in her new role to close the STEM talent gap and ensure that students have abundant opportunities to engage with science, technology, engineering, and math.

Ashley lives in Washington, D.C. where she enjoys cooking, singing and playing music, and watching Law and Order: SVU marathons.