Ashley is a mother, maker, milker, mentor, lover of beauty and ground kisser. She was raised on Chumash land, became an adult in Italy and has since vacillated, sometimes gracefully, between her two homes. As a mother she has raised her two home-schooled children in deep connection with the earth. As a mentor she has devoted a large portion of her time developing programs that seek to connect children to the land through ancestral craft, traditional foodways and storytelling, first with her own project Children’s Theater Circle and now in collaboration with True North Santa Barbara. As a maker she relishes in the possibility that the relationship of self to the land is the art and that the product or piece holds the essence of that relationship. She is interested in how love and grief are sisters, why coyote brush snow on the wind feels like a prayer, how the first time she milked goats or spun wool didn’t feel like learning, but remembering. She weaves baskets, wonders a lot, and sings to the sea often.

When Ashley first connected with Quail Springs while her brother was a work trader in 2021 she felt like she belonged. She deeply believes in the work of Quail Springs and the essential role Quail Springs plays in shaping the future of our community.