Graduate Teaching Assistant

About

  • Find Me On:

    linkedin

  • Office Hours

    By Appointment

  • Role

    Graduate Student

  • Position

    • Graduate Teaching Assistant

  • Concentration

    • Science Communication
    • Social Media
    • Deliberative Dialogue
    • Strategic Communication
    • Media Effects

  • Department

    • Journalism & Media Communication

  • Education

    • A.A. Communication Studies
    • B.A. Communication Studies
    • M.S. Journalism & Media Communication

Biography

Ashley is a Military veteran and Science Communication graduate student with a background in Communication studies and Geoscience. She earned her A.A. at Front Range Community College and her B.A. at Colorado State University, both in Communication Studies with a Geology minor.

Her primary area of interest is being a technical communicator who enhances public understanding of environmental and science-related topics through mass media outlets.

She has a deliberative dialogue background where she facilitated conversations in small group forums among community members on a variety of polarizing topics relevant to that community. She has worked on projects with the city of Fort Collins, Larimer County Office of Emergency Management, The Coloradan, Poudre School District, and many other organizations in Northern Colorado.

Her own research is focused on how humor has been and can potentially continue to be, used as a tactic for engaging mass media audiences with science-related topics.

First Generation Story

When I decided to begin my higher education journey in 2018, I did so out of anger and frustration. I had been separated from the military for ten years and much of that civilian life consisted of being a full-time parent with a few years of volunteer positions and a limited work background. When I began seeking more substantial employment opportunities, I quickly realized employers viewed my time served and experience gained in the military as worthless. Instead of viewing my mission preparation and leadership positions as organizational, critical thinking, and collaboration skills - or my yearlong deployments as demonstrating adaptability and time management skill - I was instead viewed as a liability. Bitter and determined to be valued, I activated my military education benefits and enrolled full-time at my local community college. Two semesters into earning my degree from Front Range Community College I found myself captivated by the rhetoric involved in how individuals behave and communicate based on their own experiences in life. Knowing that my classes were simply scratching the surface of the complexity of how humans communicate and that I wanted to dive deeper - I applied and was accepted into the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University in pursuit of a B.A. in Communication Studies. Simultaneously through both my A.A. and B.A., I minored in Geology with the intent of finding a career where I could combine the two disciplines which I later found to be Science Communication. Thrilled to have finally found my passion I again realized although I was knowledgeable in communication techniques I was still eager to learn more. As an individual who never imagined having a higher education of any sort, I now find myself in my second year of pursuing a M.S. in Journalism & Media Communication.