Ashley Pierce

I went to school to be a therapist, so something that I bring uniquely to the position is just an understanding of people. I approach everything that I do from a very people-first standpoint. I want to convey the processes and the safety and the quality training that we need to be deploying, but I'm always thinking about how it's going to be received, and who our specific audience is. I'm thinking about whether people's basic needs are being met, can they pay attention, do I need to throw a little sugar at them, or do we need to take a little break. I'm always thinking about the learner as a human being, and not just somebody filling a seat.

The best advice I got when transitioning out of the child welfare space was to really just bet on myself, and to not underestimate the level of success that I could have in a different industry. It was a pretty significant gear shift that I was making, and it was time. I was feeling burnt out and just needed to do something different. But it was also really scary to jump into something that I hadn't been in before, into a world I hadn't been in before. So, just to bet on myself. And then when I was successful really quickly when I broke into the manufacturing world, some additional advice I got was to own that, and to trust that, and to quiet that imposter syndrome.

I think be creatively confident, to be willing to think about things in a different way, particularly in the manufacturing industry. There's a lot of old-school thinking, there's a lot of 'this is the way we've always done it,' and I'm seeing that shift, but I think it can be really intimidating to come into a space with new ideas or fresh ideas, and I would encourage women to do that, to be creative in that way, and to do so confidently.

I think it is making space for training in an environment that is very fast-paced. Not just making space, but figuring out how to make good, engaging training that people retain, but that we can deploy and execute quickly to keep up with production and manufacturing goals from an output standpoint.

I value authenticity really highly. I think that we do our best work when we can really be ourselves, and so that's something that's really important to me. And just doing the right thing. One of the things that was challenging for me stepping out of the child welfare space was feeling like I was selling my soul a little bit. Helping people is really important to me, and I've found that there are plenty of people that need help and support, really in every industry that you go to. Something that I'm really passionate about is professional development for our factory line employees. I've developed a couple of different opportunities for people to learn things like how to write a resume, or what to wear to an interview, skills that they might not receive otherwise. Bridging that gap is really important to me.