We are happy to announce that Ashley Lee is joining the Public Allies National Office as the Director of Alumni Engagement & Mobilization.
In this role, Ashley is responsible for the development and implementation of strategies and programs to support the professional development of Public Allies alumni. Ashley’s goal will be to leverage our 8,000 plus alumni network to deepen engagement, relationships, and collaboration across issues, geographies, generations, and sectors.
Ashley most recently served as the Executive Director of Public Allies Milwaukee. Under her leadership, Public Allies Milwaukee grew into Public Allies Wisconsin, one of the largest sites in the Public Allies network, with 45 Allies serving each year. She led the expansion into the Racine/Kenosha area by securing a planning grant to launch the satellite site. During Ashley’s tenure, she raised over $150,000 annually in private funding and oversaw the site’s launch of an alumni mobilization strategy to actively support Milwaukee-based alumni moving into positions of influence.
Prior to Public Allies, Ashley served as Special Assistant to the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, where she was responsible for designing and launching the Department of Black and Latino Male Achievement. Ashley is also an experienced national service leader, having served as Regional Manager with Teach for America’s national admissions team. Ashley has been recognized as the 2019 Wisconsin Governor’s Service Alumni of the Year and recipient of the 2019 Nelson Institute Rising Star Alumni Award.
From Ashley: “In my time as Executive Director of Public Allies Milwaukee, my greatest pleasure was getting to know the vast and varied triumphs of our alumni community locally. There’s no hall of leadership in our city that hasn’t been transformed in some way by an alumnus of Public Allies. Most often, the most radical and just spaces in our city have been cultivated by networks of alumni carrying forth lessons learned from their time in the Public Allies community leadership apprenticeship program. The challenges we face as a nation and world require the kinds of people who find home and grow within their Public Allies year of service. Our alumni have learned to speak truth to power, identify and use a neighborhood’s assets to drive change from the inside out, and build honest and loving spaces to work and build with other activists and change-makers. It’s an honor and privilege to step into this role and I can’t wait to forge more opportunities for radical growth, development and healing for our Alumni across the nation.”