Her Story
About Ashley
I've been in higher education for 10 years, all at Gannon University. Before that, I worked as a paralegal at a law firm for about 14 years, and I continued to manage some of their harder cases and books on a per diem basis later. When my husband got deployed to Iraq and then Afghanistan, and we had young children, I took a pause in my career. I started back up in higher education as an opportunity to re-enter the workforce, taking an entry-level role and then progressing at my current institution to my current position as Enterprise Risk and Compliance Advisor. My main area of expertise is risk management and compliance, with legal aspects. I'm currently pursuing my Doctor of Strategic Leadership at Liberty University, about halfway through the program. My coursework will be finished in 2026, and I should be able to start my doctoral project in January 2027. My doctoral project is going to be on bridging the gap between administrators and faculty in higher education institutions for shared governance. Shared governance is a very unique leadership structure, largely unique to institutes of higher education. Coming from a private law firm with very hierarchical structure, it was a learning curve, and there's not much research on it. I think my most notable current accomplishment is bridging that gap at my current institution and learning more about the expectations between administrators and faculty as it relates to shared governance. Previously, during COVID, I built the CARE program at our institution, providing meals, entertainment, different fitness activities, hygiene, and medical attention for our students who were on campus during COVID, especially our large international population that could not go home. Some of them could not return home for 3 years.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ashley
01What do you attribute your success to?
I grew up in a single-parent household. My dad passed away when I was young in an accidental death, and he was only in his thirties, so my mom was left with 3 young children at the age of 30, and we were already not a wealthy family. Growing up, hard work was always the center of everything that we did. My mom was a prison guard, and it was very inspirational, because we learned that no matter what, as a female especially, that you should be able to afford the lifestyle you want with influence. That, as a child growing up, was a huge influence of mine. I actually ended up having a child at a young age, which put my life on delay. But when my child was 2 years old, I realized that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to go to college. I think the most valuable part of an education is not even the academic part, but it is the interpersonal self-discovery, it's advancing yourself as a human being. The associate's degree was kind of survival, the bachelor's degree was okay I need to level up, the master's degree was okay I need to learn more about this field to advance myself, and then as far as a doctorate, you're trying to advance the field that you're passionate about. There's a lot of self-connection to the degree that you're earning.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The most important thing in risk management and insurance is building relationships across your enterprise and with your brokers and the people that you really should rely on. Who you surround yourself with in this business is very important. It's such a broad, encompassing responsibility. Your goal is to help advise your enterprise and educate your enterprise on risk and compliance so that everybody at your institution owns a piece of the compliance and risk. It's better to educate than to mandate - you'll get better results. This is a hidden field, and people usually have a whole other career before they fall into this area.
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