Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Distinctive Schools

Ashley (née Davis) Richardson was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. She is an educator, published author, public speaker, facilitator, wife and mother. Richardson was an English Language Arts teacher at several different school districts in the city and the surrounding suburbs of Chicago. She has taught students from general education to advanced and accelerated students. Richardson highlights her experiences in her book, "The Confessions of a Non-Tenured Teacher" where she advocates and is building more teacher mentoring to decrease the amount of teachers who quit within their first three years of teaching. Currently, she is an administrator in Lansing, Michigan where she directs Middle School Teachers and also serves as Dean of Students. She believes that true supervision and coaching go hand in hand in being a leader.

Her experiences in attending schools with completely different demographics in race and class that were within a few miles of each other were the initial seeds planted in her search for equitable and affordable education for all children, no matter their backgrounds. Many of her professional development sessions have been centered on Teaching students of Color for those who aren't of Color, Reaching the "marginalized" student, and what the word Diversity looks like.

Richardson attended Western Illinois University where she graduated with honors with her Bachelor’s in English Secondary Education with minors in Journalism and African American Studies. She went on to Eastern Illinois University to receive her master’s degree in Educational Leadership. She currently works with Distinctive Schools as Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and provides support mentors the Instructional Coaches at CICS Prairie on Chicago's southside.