Dr. Ashley Parker Sheils

ashley@childrensfoundationms.org

Dr. Ashley Parker Sheils has 21 years of experience as a teacher, literacy coach, grant writer, program evaluator, and program director, designing, delivering, and evaluating professional learning opportunities to improve classroom instruction, out of school time programming, and ultimately literacy achievement among PreK-12 learners.

With a passion for public education and high-quality literacy programming for all children via alignment between home, school, and community, Ashley has designed and lead large scale educational initiatives, most recently serving as the Director of Mission Acceleration, a statewide high-impact tutoring model, as well as the Director of the Mississippi Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a statewide initiative focused on improving literacy outcomes. Additionally, Ashley has led a large-scale federal research study as project coordinator and has served as a literacy consultant for national organizations, state-level organizations, school districts, and nonprofit agencies, specifically related to planning, implementing, and scaling evidence-based literacy practices and interventions. Most recently, she served as the Program Design Consultant for Accelerate Virginia, Program Development Consultant for Deans for Impact’s Aspiring Teachers as Tutors Network, and the Community Impact Consultant for the Mississippi United Way Association, which focused on public-private partnerships to increase access to literacy programming and resources. To date, Ashley has secured over $13 million in grant funding to support literacy-related work in Mississippi. Ashley was recognized by the Council for Learning Disabilities with the Outstanding Researcher Award for her dissertation on vocabulary instruction in 2018.

Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Ashley holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Mississippi as well as a doctoral degree from Southern Methodist University and is Mom to twin boys, Preston and Parker.