Ashley grew up in the creeks and forests around DFW, but truly discovered her passion for the environment while obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Biology degree at the University of Alabama. During her time in Tuscaloosa, she worked at the University of Alabama Herbarium (UNA) focusing on imaging specimens. After graduation, she wanted to continue working with plants and was elated to have found a position at in Fort Worth do just that.
In 2017, Ashley started off as a summer intern until an opportunity opened up as a collections assistant for the recently acquired University of Louisiana at Monroe Herbarium (NLU) of roughly 470,000 specimens. Over the course of a year and a half, Ashley was responsible for curating and ensuring the security and accessibility of the NLU collection. Beginning in 2019, Ashley accepted the position of Herbarium Collections Assistant and was responsible for managing herbarium volunteers and activities as well as assisting with all aspects of curation for the BRIT/SMU, VDB, and NLU collections. In 2020, Ashley started working remotely in Lubbock assisting with the grant funded by the National Science Foundation to digitize all specimens collected in Texas and Oklahoma. In 2021, she took on just a few more responsibilities dealing with remote volunteers and outreach as a full-time Digitization Coordinator. During her time in Lubbock, she assisted with the start-up of a new herbarium at the Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Yoakum Dunes Wildlife Management Area. With a return to the DFW area in 2022, Ashley accepted the position of Herbarium Collections Manager, to care for all collections and volunteers for the Philecology Herbarium.
