It is not every day that we have the opportunity to hear from an alum who has made some incredible impacts on social justice. To be honest, we definitely love hearing from them when we do! We recently caught up with Canfield BHP alum, Ashley Williams, who has gone from a financial professional to policy analyst fighting for social justice at Every Texan (formerly known as Center for Public Policy Priorities). Ashley demonstrates how to use your analytical skills to serve your fellow human.
A triple-major, Ashley graduated in 2016 with degrees in Canfield Business Honors, Finance, and African and African Diaspora Studies. After graduating, she ventured into the energy space at ExxonMobil as a Financial Analyst. Later, Ashley went on to pursue her Master of Social Science degree at UCLA. Following her masters, Ashley joined Every Texan which, at the time, was known as the Center for Public Policy Priorities where she now serves as a Policy Analyst in the organization’s Economic Opportunity Team.
“Every Texan is a policy advocacy organization. Our mantra is that social justice requires public policy. That is what I do — I work on the Economic Opportunity Team, particularly as a higher education state policy analyst to work to put forth and analyze policy that drives equity and access in higher education, particularly for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. I absolutely love my job.”
As a finance major, Ashley loved everything she gained from her learnings. Though it was in her Black studies major where she found her true passion. “I just feel totally lucky that I get to combine all the things I’m passionate about in my job where I work to create change. I’m proud that I was able to steward the passage of two bills into law last legislative session in Texas”, Ashley explained.
As a policy analyst at Every Texan, Ashley has been instrumental in the organization’s latest endeavor — the Policy Leaders of Tomorrow Fellowship Program where she serves as the program’s lead. “I feel the skills I learned in Canfield BHP are absolutely instrumental to what I do today,” she says.
Asked what she enjoyed most about her job, Ashley had to pause for a moment to gather her thoughts because she truly enjoys everything. She explained, “the first thing that comes to mind about my job that I enjoy the most is that I get to work with a lot of really smart, passionate people who are true experts in so many fields of policy. It feels great to be among them. And then tied for that, the most exciting part of my job is the opportunity for impact.”
The fight for social justice goes on — even in a pandemic. Ashley shared that policy analysis and engaging with folks as well as the coalition has been shifted due to COVID. Though one might be forgiven for thinking the work being done at Every Texan has been slowed by the pandemic, the complete opposite is true. Their work has only increased since the pandemic started.
“I co-lead a coalition of advocates focused on higher education improvements for students, especially those with historically underrepresented backgrounds. Our activity has actually been a lot higher because of the pandemic. We’re advocating for policy interventions to help students who are obviously seriously impacted by the pandemic so I work a lot more than I could have imagined working in the interim between the two legislative sessions. I feel like I’m always in session. We do a lot of digital events, writing, and zoom webinars to get our message out there to stakeholders.”
Ashley credits her time at Canfield BHP as integral to her success throughout her career. One of her favorite aspects of our program is the case-based approach we practice in dealing with real-world situations and applications. She explains, “the way that CBHP approached learning in the academic environment very much mirrors a professional environment. It helps me in my work at a think tank because we engage in similar processes, we do a lot of ideation together, problem-solving, and nothing is clearly defined. You can know formulas, but how you get to driving change requires collaboration. CBHP’s learning environment emphasizes those elements and made the transition to a professional environment really easy.”
If you have played with the idea of pursuing your master’s degree or doing any research-specific work, Ashley highly recommends getting engaged in research early on and ensuring that you thoroughly investigate what interests you in your studies. “There are so many other applications to what you learn in the program. You should talk to professors and get engaged in research if you can, especially if you have any inkling that you want to go on to your graduate studies,” Ashley recommended.