Our Staff

Program Director

Starting her career with over 10 years in the hospitality industry, Ashlee is a passionate community partner with a servant’s heart. Ashlee recently graduated from the Master of Public Administration program at North Carolina Central University, to transition into a career shaped around her passions for community, equity, and advocacy.

Ashlee grew up in rural Southeasten North Carolina, and deeply values faith, family, and community. Much of who she is has been shaped by her experience in the black church, which instilled a desire to feed her community: mind, body, and spirit.

Through the years, Ashlee has had the opportunity to mentor youth in her community through academic tutoring, connecting them to resources, and encouraging their future educational pursuits. Ashlee’s commitment to advocating for and exposing rural youth to educational and career opportunities has influenced students to explore experiences beyond their socioeconomic scope.

Ashlee is especially passionate about food insecurity and food deserts and has worked diligently with community organizations, local churches, and government agencies to promote equitable access to healthy and nutritious food. Throughout her graduate studies, Ashlee has completed research surrounding food equity and worked with organizations such as the North Carolina Rural Center Advocacy and Research division and Wake County Budget and Management department. In addition, she has facilitated conversations with the Durham Mayor’s office to conceptualize solutions to this and other wide stretching community issues.

Ashlee served as a Courageous Leadership Equity Fellow in the first US cohort in 2021 and has gone on to use the tools she has developed to facilitate conversations about race on her college campus, in her community, and within the state of North Carolina. Her most fond recent memory is having the opportunity to host a conversation about race with NC poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green.