Before coming to DC, Ashley was cutting her teeth in Pennsylvania politics, working for Governor Tom Ridge — who would go on to become her boss again when he was named the first U.S. Homeland Security Advisor. She jokes that she beat him to be employee #1 because she was already White House-cleared.

Her path to the West Wing started on the campaign trail. Ashley worked on Bush's presidential campaign, and when he won, she planned to head back to Pennsylvania — until the new administration had other ideas and offered her a job.

Ashley was working in the West Wing on 9/11 and describes her literal pivot: “My office was in the West Wing basement at the time… and the president’s dad (41) was in my office saying ‘hi’... and that’s when the second plane hit… so secret service told us to take off our shoes and run… I was walking out and my boss said to me ‘I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, if we’re going to live or die, but there are a couple of us that need to stay back’… and I made my first physical pivot and turned around and walked back in.”

That moment shaped her career—and ultimately led to her role helping establish the White House’s Office of Homeland Security, the precursor to DHS.