ashley sMallwood

GROUP Principal CONSULTANT

Ashley is a facilitator, design thinker, educator, and strategist committed to advancing equity through collaboration. Through The Group Forward, Ashley partners with organizations of all stripes to: unearth meaningful insight; design and facilitate team- and organization-wide convenings; guide strategic planning processes; create the conditions for collaborative innovation; and build capacity to galvanize teams to work better, together.

Ashley has 18 years of experience as a consultant and strategist, leading projects for schools, education organizations, and corporations. She has worked as a consultant and IDEO and Clear USA, Head of Creative at fast-growing startup Tough Mudder, and founding 7th grade English Teacher at Girls Prep Bronx Middle School. Most recently, Ashley was Director of TC NEXT at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she built a reimagined career center and led a department of six people and seven student employees.

Ashley is committed to her personal anti-racism practice and has received training in inclusive and liberatory design and leadership from equity x design and Starting Bloc. She has a BA in English and Art History from Georgetown University and an M.Ed. from Harvard University. She lives in New York with her partner and rambunctious toddler.