Ashley grew up just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, then moved to Baltimore to earn her degree in molecular and cellular biology and psychology at Johns Hopkins University. While at Hopkins, she worked in the lab of Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee where she studied experience dependent synaptic plasticity in the visual cortex. After graduating, she accepted a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health to work in pre-clinical drug discovery at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Under the guidance of Dr. Mark Henderson, she investigated potential therapeutics to treat glioblastoma and neurodegenerative diseases. In the Lim lab she plans to study regional vulnerabilities and extra-cerebellar pathology in SCA1. During her free time, Ashley enjoys spending time outdoors.