Learning is magic.

Connection is healing. Collaboration is possible.

Let's work together

About Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley Cooper (my current favorite nicknames are AC and Ms. Two Rivers).

I was recently told that I’m a combination of soft, caring, direct, and efficient; that people feel seen and heard with me while also experiencing my willingness to say the difficult thing or name the hard truth in order to support moving forward in meaningful ways. I appreciated this person seeing both my thoughtfulness and care mixed with a deep devotion for actual collaboration that supports learning, collective action, and healing. My work is a practice of cultivating more love, collaboration, and intentional action in groups, individuals, our society, and myself.

My approach is creative, relational, centers direct and consistent communication, and courageous when necessary. If our passion for what’s possible or respect for one another align, we are capable of creating powerful, magical experiences together.

I use she/her or they/them pronouns. 

Why I Do This Work

I believe that each person has unique perspectives and insight that contribute to our collective experience of being alive. I believe that everyone has a right to thrive. I have repeatedly experienced profound wisdom emerging from a group; insight that no one person carried in, but that was revealed because of the people present and the ways they were interacting with one another. I feel heartache witnessing people being denied basic human rights and blocked from opportunities to contribute their gifts and experience joy. My work as a facilitator, educator, consultant, organizer, and evaluator is a practice of cultivating a more loving and just world. I cherish when the work feels like play and my colleagues are also friends.

My hope and intention is to partner with colleagues and clients to do meaningful work while connecting with each other in caring and thoughtful ways.  I aim to experience tastes of liberation in the ways we move together and that as many of us as possible, definitely myself included, deepen and live more fully into our own humanity.

A focus of this work is to create a safe-enough space where people can be brave and take necessary risks.

With me the journey isn’t always comfortable, but we move in a positive direction and people feel supported as they grow to be the badass individuals or group that the moment requires.

MY PATH

Professionally speaking – I began as a preschool teacher, developed into an elementary school counselor and social and emotional educator for adults and children, co-founded a multi-generational leadership/alternative education organization, and grew a coaching, consulting, and facilitation business that continues today. I’ve worked with tens of thousands of people, from demanding and curious 4 year-olds to creative Executive Directors. I’ve partnered with board chairs, passionate teenagers, burnt-out organizers, idealist teachers, mission-driven organizations, social justice foundations, and grassroots nonprofits.

I am an expression of all the people and the experiences that have shaped me. For the last 17 years, I’ve intentionally prioritized learning from Black, Brown, Queer, and Indigenous people. I am grateful to all of the folks with whom I have learned from and with (and challenged to name them all). The most profound learning moments have been when it has emerged from a direct experience we are having together – whether it’s about what is necessary for this diverse group to keep moving forward amongst disagreements or if it’s about how me and another can adjust our relating patterns to work better together. My approach grows out of these lived experiences of people I’m in community with and the lessons from our collaborations; as well as from the work of other thought leaders and authors. I’m particularly grateful to youth for sharing their brilliance.

This journey has consistently revealed that truly innovative and healing paths towards a more loving and just world are seeded with the wisdom, compassion, and power that comes from following the guidance of the people who have lived experience with the matter at hand.

I am a White woman, Jewish, queer, Southern, and constantly evolving; willing and able to move with the integrity and humility that is necessary to bring bold and equitable visions to life.

MORE INFO

Examples of Past Work

Consulting and Community Engagement

  • Consulted with two rural county municipalities to implement a 10-month community-guided learning process around substance use to gather recommendations for spending Opioid Settlement funds and strengthen partnerships amongst local constituents. Used a Participatory Narrative Inquiry methodology.
  • Partnered with the State of Black Asheville to pilot a Tuition Reparations initiative to support financial relief from student indebtedness for Black youth and to provide an opportunity for individuals who have personally benefited from racial discrimination to directly contribute financial resources.

Group Facilitation Trainings and Workshops

  • Co-lead a semester long graduate studies course with Lenoir Rhyne University that was also open to local community leaders: Leading Through Engagement and Facilitation.
  • Consulted with Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) to co-design and deliver a facilitation training program to develop skills in FTE’s unique facilitation methods.

Program Design and Curriculum Review

  • Co-designed and co-facilitated staff training for summer camp counselors around how to cultivate community and belonging.
  • Partnered with Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Faith in Women, and Collabyrinth Consulting to co-design and co-facilitate a Fellowship for Leaders of Moral Courage for faith leaders focused on reproductive dignity.
  • Partnered with Faith Matters Network to review the curriculum for the Daring Compassion: Movement Chaplaincy course.

Racial Equity and Anti-Racism Trainings and Practice Groups

  • Workshops, trainings, and equity coaching, co-facilitated with Black and Brown colleagues.
  • Affinity groups for White and Jewish people.
    Resumé

    Click here to see Ashley’s Resumé

    Short Bio

    Ashley Cooper believes in the goodness of humans — in our abilities to collaboratively address the complex challenges we face and care for one another along the way. She is a consultant, faciliator, educator, community organizer, and coach with over 20 years experience working with thousands of people in schools, foundations, nonprofits and grassroots initiatives. Ashley’s approach is relationship-oriented, systemic in scope, and centers equity. She partners with determined individuals, mission-driven organizations and companies, and philanthropic foundations to co-design experiences that move forward in intentional and compassionate ways.

    Full Bio

    Profound and magical things are possible when we work together. That’s what more than 20 years of experience facilitating the processes of learning, collaborating, and healing has revealed to Ashley Cooper. As an educator, facilitator, coach, consultant, and community organizer, she’s witnessed the wisdom that comes alive when people of various ages, races, genders, class, cognitive, emotional and physical abilities, and life experiences lean into similarities and find strength and power in the differences. She’s also experienced the learning and growth that is possible and necessary when people convene in affinity groups to learn from and with others who share identities and life experiences.

    Ashley’s work is a practice of cultivating a more loving and just world. Her focus is to create a safe-enough space where people can be brave and take necessary risks; actions that support shifting current conditions that limit human rights and collaboratively addressing the complex challenges we face while caring for one another along the way. Her approach is relationship-oriented, systemic in scope, and centers equity.

    She partners with determined individuals, mission-driven organizations and companies, and philanthropic foundations to co-design experiences that move forward in intentional and compassionate ways.

    Beginning her career as a preschool teacher, Ashley developed into a school counselor and social and emotional educator for adults and children. She co-founded a multi-generational leadership organization and grew a coaching and consulting business that continues today. Her experience has repeatedly shown that truly innovative and healing paths towards a more loving and just world are seeded with the wisdom, compassion, and power that comes from following the guidance of the people who have lived experience with the matter at hand. Ashley is a white woman, Jewish, queer, and constantly evolving. She’s willing and able to move with the integrity and humility that is necessary in multi-racial collaborations to bring these visions to life. She consistently shows up with authenticity, deep listening, and respect for whoever is in the room. For the last 17 years, she has intentionally learned from Black, Brown and Indigenous colleagues, thought leaders, authors, and, most powerfully, the lived experiences of people with whom she’s in community. Her courage, willingness, and ability to challenge is grounded in compassion and lived experience.

    Because accountability for Ashley’s actions and the outcomes of her work are essential, Ashley collaborates in multiracial teams for all work that has anything to do with racial inequity.