Ashby Leavell hails from Charlottesville, Virginia. While pursuing a French major and a landscape architecture minor at the University of Virginia, Ashby served as the undergraduate representative on UVA鈥檚 Landscape and Arboretum Committee. Over the years ,Ashby worked in botanic gardens as a horticulturalist, educator听and researcher at Thomas Jefferson鈥檚 Monticello, Kew Gardens in London, Tresco Abbey Gardens in Cornwall, UK听and completed a master鈥檚 fellowship in botanic garden management with Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware. Next, for several years, Ashby honed fundraising skills in major gifts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art听while advocating for Philadelphia urban parks. After working in Parks and Recreation with the City of Golden, Ashby is now pursuing a听PhD in environmental studies and design at CU Boulder. Her research interests include horticulture, urban park development, green gentrification听and gardens and wellbeing.