Ashley grew up in Delaware, where her father served as a senator for 36 years, and attended Wilmington Friends School. She went on to study cultural anthropology at Tulane University, and then got her masters' in social work at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010.
She eventually pursued a career as a social worker, serving as the education and employment liaison in the education office for the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families for five years before taking on an executive role at the Delaware Centre for Justice in 2013.
Image Source: Getty / Gary Gershoff