Ashley Watson is a PhD Candidate in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development with an emphasis in Comparative and International Development Education at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities.

Her undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA) is in Communication. She obtained an M.S.Ed.  in Higher Education Administration from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College (New York, NY).

As a traveling scholar through the Big 10 Alliance, Ashley enrolled in African Studies courses at Rutgers University, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, and Indiana University after being awarded a FLAS Fellowship for Swahili. Other awards include a Diversity Predoctoral Teaching Fellowship to the University of Minnesota-Morris, a research grant from the CIES Study Abroad and International Student SIG, and Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.

Broadly speaking, she is curious about socialization, its impact on identity, and how that identity is communicated to others (namely within educational spaces).

Administratively, she is an experienced education project manager specializing in creating and implementing international and intercultural experiences.