Ashley Eden is the Vice President of Policy and Advocacy for New Meridian. Charged with engaging federal, state and local stakeholders, leading a policy agenda and managing funding goals, Ashley works to expand equity in education through high-quality assessment.

Prior to New Meridian, Ashley worked in one of the most rigorous proving grounds in the country: the US Senate, where she spent years working on—often writing—provisions in some of the most important education bills passed in the last decade. During that time, she worked for Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Diane Feinstein of California, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Ashley worked closely with advocates and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to craft the accountability and assessment requirements that were signed into law with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Following the passage of ESSA, she moved to New Mexico to take on the task of writing the state’s education plan, one of the first in the nation to be approved by the US Department of Education and widely recognized as one of the best plans in the country.

Ashley served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Secretary of School Transformation at the New Mexico Public Education Agency before joining New Meridian in 2019. Throughout all her roles, the mission to improve the quality of our country’s education system for all students has been Ashley’s primary motivation.

Ashley earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson and recently moved back to her hometown in Texas.

Follow @AshleyREden