About Me

Hi, I’m Ashley, and I didn’t set out to end up here!

I studied rhetoric because I cared about language: how people persuade, misunderstand, and reveal themselves without meaning to. For a while, I imagined that my curiosity would take me to law school, or maybe into academia to study literature across cultures. I liked the idea of helping people by understanding how arguments are built.

Then I took one technical communication course, almost accidentally, and something clicked. The same instincts that made me annotate novels and question narrative structure felt just as alive when applied to systems and people. Since then, I’ve been leaning into that shift by practicing my qualitative methods and quantitative skills as I’m looking for opportunities in user research where I can keep learning and building.

Turns out the scenic route was the right one. If you want to swap origin stories or debate coffee orders, my inbox is open!

What I bring to the Table (and the whiteboard)

How I Show Up

I’ve always felt a bit like a Protagonist—not in the dramatic sense, but in the sense of feeling responsible for the story unfolding around me. I care about alignment, about making sure people feel included, and about moving things forward with clarity. I’m confident in my judgment once I’ve reflected, and I don’t tend to waver under pressure. In my relationships, I’m deeply loyal and direct; I’d rather have an honest conversation than a comfortable misunderstanding. I don’t love people by halves.

Close Reading

I studied rhetoric because I was fascinated by how meaning shifts depending on context. The same sentence can comfort, persuade, or provoke depending on who says it and how it’s framed. I tend to slow down and ask what’s underneath something before I react to what’s on the surface. I don’t like taking things at face value; I like understanding why they work.

When it Clicks

I have a habit of noticing small inconsistencies. A word that doesn’t quite fit, a pattern that repeats once too often, a detail that feels slightly off. I’m not interested in perfection, but I am interested in coherence. When something makes sense structurally, I can feel it. And when it doesn’t, I can’t unsee it. I like tracing things back to their root until they click into place.

Marginalia

Lines I've underlined and returned to.

"I've developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time."
— Charles M. Schulz

"Time to leave now, get out of this room, go somewhere, anywhere; sharpen this feeling of happiness and freedom, stretch your limbs, fill your eyes, be awake, wider awake, vividly awake in every sense and every pore."
— Stefan Zweig, The Post-Office Girl

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."
— Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

"Everything in the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born."
— Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star

Off the Clock

playing the piano

Dawn Treader Book Shop in Ann Arbor, MI

Baby Ashley and my younger sister reppin' the Vols

On Reading

I read constantly, whether it's novels, essays, or books. Anything with a strong voice. I love getting absorbed in someone else's interior world and watching how they build it sentence by sentence. There's something satisfying about seeing how a story earns its ending. Reading feels like both escape and study at the same time. It's probably the most consistent thread in my life.

On Being a Fan

I'm a die-hard fan of the Tennessee Volunteers and the Atlanta Falcons. I grew up in Tennessee and Georgia, which means my sports loyalties are complicated, but firmly chosen. The past few seasons have required patience and a sense of humor, but I wouldn't trade them for a perennial powerhouse. There's something grounding about loving a team that makes you work for it. It's joy without irony.

In Sound

I grew up playing piano and viola, and taught myself violin and electric bass. I love getting out of my own head and focusing on my hands and physically feeling the keys or strings as I play anything from Chopin to Weezer. I truly love all music, including country (which feels important to clarify in a world where "everything except country" is a personality trait). If I could master one instrument overnight, it would be the banjo. You can take the girl out of Tennessee.