Ashley Christopher is a mother, CEO, Attorney and Survivor.  A mother to her son, Ryan; CEO of HBCU Week Foundation; licensed to practice law in the state of Pennsylvania; and stroke survivor. 

Ashley founded HBCU Week Foundation in 2017, a company whose mission is to encourage enrollment into HBCUs, provide scholarship dollars for matriculation and sustain a pipeline of employment from undergraduate school to corporate America.  The purpose of HBCU Week is to gather high school aged students and expose them to the historical significance and proud legacies of HBCUs, with the goal of those students considering HBCUs for higher education opportunities.  HBCU Week offers an authentic homecoming like experience, featuring a weeklong of activities.  The cornerstone of this initiative is the college fair.  This fair is unique because participating colleges engage in an on the spot acceptance process, whereby, if attending students come equipped with the requisite SAT/ACT score and GPA, they can be offered acceptance on the spot and a scholarship award. To date, over 10,000 acceptances on the spot have been offered and over $100 million dollars in scholarships have been awarded.  In addition to the HBCUs offering scholarships to the college fair attendees, HBCU Week Foundation has secured several corporate partners who offer significant scholarship and internship opportunities to students who attend HBCU Week and commit to attend an HBCU.  Those companies include but aren’t limited to the NFL, Capital One, DuPont and The Chemours Company. Most notably, Ashley brokered a $40,000,000 partnership with the American Chemistry Council (ACC), whereby the HBCU Week Foundation will administer 1,000, $40,000 scholarships, to students who commit to an HBCU and declare a STEM major.   

 Ashley is a double HBCU Alumna.  She attended Howard University for undergraduate school, where she worked on the renowned Howard University Homecoming Steering Committee, most notably as Vice-Chair, and was initiated into Alpha Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.  She later attended the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law.   

Today, Ashley is unequivocally dedicated to the mission of HBCU Week Foundation, by exposing high school aged youth to the opportunity to attend an HBCU.  As a double HBCU alumna, she believes it is her responsibility to reach back while she climbs, exposing youth to the fact that you can do and be anything coming from an HBCU.   

Ashley’s favorite job is being a mother to her son, Ryan.  She lives by the scripture, Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”