As a Thai-American woman married to a Black multiracial man, I often witnessed the impact of systems built to uphold existing power structures. After beginning my career in media and noticing the lack of behind-the-scenes representation, I decided to attend graduate school to become a professional social worker, aiming to be a more effective advocate for marginalized identities and to broaden others' understanding and perspectives. While interning as a graduate student at an employee assistance program, I discovered and fell in love with coaching as another way to help others.
I’m passionate about assisting leaders in moving beyond merely surviving organizational challenges to transforming them. Through a triple integrated approach of emotional intelligence, Red Team Thinking, and CliftonStrengths—I help leaders lead by design and to become antifragile—gaining strength from chaos and uncertainty, a concept I learned in social work.
Imposter syndrome is a systemic scam driven by the failure to recognize how bias and exclusion amplify normal self-doubt, especially for marginalized identities. I’ve personally struggled with limiting self-narratives that have held me back—and sometimes still do. This shapes how I work with clients. I understand how hard it can be to move past the stories we tell ourselves while acknowledging that there are very real systemic barriers to contend with in the world—subtle acts of exclusion, double standards, and cultures that reward conformity—that contribute to those narratives. We mustn’t let ourselves get trapped in the stories that don’t serve us well, even when they’ve been imposed on us.
Clients often tell me that feeling genuinely supported through my coaching helps push them beyond their comfort zone to where they really want to be. That’s deliberate. Transformation, not surface-level change, is what it takes to create genuine inclusion for everyone. In working through real workplace situations and leadership development, the goal isn't for leaders to fit a narrow definition of leadership, but to transform the systems that created those definitions. Whether you have organizational backing or you're driving change within your current sphere of influence, we can work together to expand what’s possible. I help clients identify and overcome what's limiting them and their organizations to empower their leadership effectiveness and transform their organizations for the benefit of others in the process.
Jacqueline Ashley, DSW, PCC
—Dr. Jacqueline Ashley