Ashley Appleby

I'm a first-generation college student and the first person in my family to go to college. I began my PhD program in 2017 and immediately started teaching that first semester with a teaching assistantship, while also doing research in the field of higher education and prison. I taught at Rutgers University Newark for 6 years throughout my program, and have been in my current role for 3 years at a student-centered institution. A typical day for me starts around 8:30 or 9 o'clock in the morning when I get to campus. I teach 4 classes a semester, usually teaching for about 3 hours in the mornings. Around lunchtime I engage in meetings, answer emails, and open up office hours for a few hours in the afternoon. Then I head home and finish up my day by answering more emails, making sure I've graded everything I need to grade, ensuring all my courses are where they need to be, checking in on my student advisees and current students who have questions about assignments or class. I also make sure I have anything wrapped up with colleagues at my current role or colleagues across the field, because I typically engage in research with colleagues from different universities and colleges. I have some collaborations that I often check in on to make sure I'm still writing, staying up to date with the field, and doing research. I work at a student-centered institution, and my biggest accomplishment is getting nominated for Faculty of the Year in my third year of teaching in my current role by my students. That means I'm having a meaningful impact on their lives, and that's really what I strive to do. I'm very passionate about higher education in prison and providing students access to education without barriers. I received a grant at Rutgers for providing students access to my courses for free using all free resources, which led to savings across all Rutgers campuses of about $2 million because I wanted my courses to be free so students could access all resources and not have any barriers to having to pay for expensive textbooks. I'm also now balancing being a working mom with a young son while navigating early career challenges as a young woman professional with a PhD.