As a native Oklahoman, Ashley received her B.S. and M.S. from Oklahoma State University-Tulsa in Human Development and Family Science. She previously served as a research assistant for OSU’s Center for Family Resilience evaluating various community and grant funded projects. As an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, she developed and implemented a family strengthening initiative within Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center. Ashley joined the OK Policy Institute in 2018 as the Justice Data Analyst for Open Justice Oklahoma. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from OSU, where her research interests include family and community impacts of the justice system. 

Dissertation Topic: Examine the strength and interaction of multiple causal variable of maladjustment for children of incarcerated parents. Past research has examined the relationship between parental incarceration and negative child outcomes, but questions regarding how much of the impact is specific to parental incarceration and how much can be accounted for other things such as poverty, neighborhood violence, exposure to substance abuse or mental health issues, etc.  The research will examine the strength and interaction of these variables using structural equation modeling, an advanced statistical technique used to examine causal relationships, not just correlation.