Ashley K. Shelton
Ashley served as Director of Grantmaking for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation for six years. In that capacity, Ashley was responsible for all competitive grantmaking funds, consulted with nonprofits about the funding priorities of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, matched the needs of donors with the needs for nonprofits and created all grant material for grant review committees. Ashley also successfully coordinated the Foundation’s grantmaking program in Puerto Rico and a community campaign to raise AIDS awareness that was launched in June of 2004.
Ashley has received many honors, including selection as a 2005 - 2006 Fellow in the Emerging Leaders Program at Duke University and the University of Cape Town. She received the Young Women’s Christian Association’s Young Women of Achievement award in September of 2003. In January of 2003, Ashley was appointed to the Foundation for the Mid South’s Commission to Build Philanthropy. The regional Commission hopes to create strategies that develop community wealth and promote racial and social equity. The Baton Rouge Business Report recognized her with the Top Forty Under Forty award in 2002. In 1999 The Southeastern Council on Foundations honored Ashley as a Distinguished Hull Fellow. This honor acknowledges young leaders in the foundation field .
Ashley currently serves on the board of directors for the following nonprofits: Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Forum 35, City at Peace, Junior League Community Advisory Board, and the Links, Inc. Recently, she was appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Licensing of Child Care Facilities and Child Placing Agencies.
Ashley grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Kennedy, Sr. She attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications. Ashley is married to Dwayne Shelton and they have two daughters Sydney and Chloe and a son, Jacob.