Ashley Etienne

A creative, strategic, and enterprising big thinker, Ashley Etienne has more than 15 years of experience specializing in brand development, crisis communications, social activation and storytelling. She has been a trusted advisor for President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, consulted Fortune 500 executives, and launched national campaigns that leveraged top entertainers, professional athletes and civil rights icons.

Ashley currently serves as Communications Director and Senior Advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman and person of color to hold the position. The architect of Democrats’ “culture of corruption” strategy against the GOP, Ashley’s work coordinating nearly a dozen Congressional committees to pursue the Trump-Russia investigation and expose broader misconduct in the Trump Administration dominates daily headlines, drove four Cabinet Secretaries to resign under a cloud of scandal, and set the stage for Democrats’ historic mid-term victory.

Ashley was appointed Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and Director of Communications for the Cabinet in 2014. There, she spearheaded Cabinet-wide communications efforts on high-stakes Administration priorities, including the JCPOA, the Paris Climate Accord and the Black Lives Matter. Ashley also led communications on President Obama’s signature My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

Outside the highest levels of government, Ashley has provided strategic counsel to private sector clients while at Dewey Square Group and head of her own consulting firm, Etienne & Associates.

Ashley has been profiled by major national and political newspapers, including New York Times Magazine. She was named to Politico Playbook New Guard Power list, Essence Magazine’s 29 Powerful Black Women Running Obama’s White House, and Marie Claire’s New Guard List as “Obama’s bad- news fixer.”

Ashley received a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Sam Houston State University and a Master’s Degree in Political Communications from Johns Hopkins University.