The Story
She didn't come from easy. She came from determined.
Ashley Springs grew up in generational poverty. She became a mother as a teenager. She navigated grief — twice, in close succession. She went through divorce. She raised children as a single mom while building a career, earning four degrees, moving to a completely new state by herself to give her kids a better chance, and showing up every day in schools that needed her.
"I didn't push through because it was easy. I pushed through because I HAD to — and because I knew there were others out there like me who deserved someone in their corner who actually understood what they were carrying."
That's not a biography detail. That's the foundation of everything Ashley builds. Because she's never been the person who just read about hard. She's lived it — and kept going anyway. And that experience doesn't just make her relatable. It makes her extraordinarily effective at sitting across from a school leader who's overwhelmed, struggling, and trying hard — and seeing exactly what they need when they can't quite see it themselves.
First-generation college graduate — four times over
BS in Special Education · MS in Curriculum & Instruction · Ed.S. in Educational Leadership & Administration · MS in Finance. Not because the path was clear — because she made it clear, one degree at a time, while working full-time and raising her family.
She started her career as a Special Education teacher — in the classroom, with real kids, doing real work. From there she became a Dean, a Principal Intern, a district-level leader, and eventually a state-level consultant serving 200+ charter and non-traditional schools across North Carolina. Every level she reached, she brought the same thing with her: the willingness to slow down, listen first, and build something that actually works for the people in front of her.
The schools that were always left out
Charter and non-traditional schools have always been underserved — not because of lack of effort, but because the support was never designed for how they actually work. Ashley spent 18 years watching that gap and eventually decided she was going to be the one to fill it. That decision became Defining My Way: School Leadership.
And then there's the other side of her story — the one that runs parallel to every professional achievement. The mom side. The woman side. The person who was building a career while also navigating financial stress, grief, single parenting, and the daily reality of holding everything together without a map. That experience didn't separate itself from her professional work — it deepened it. Because she understands that the school leader sitting across from her is also a whole person who goes home to a whole life — and that matters in how she shows up for them.
"The leader running the school and the person going home at night are the same human being. I've never pretended those two things are separate — and I'm not going to start now."
That's why Ashley built two brands under one roof. Defining My Way: School Leadership for the professionals who need systems that work in their buildings. And Defining My Way Academy's personal side for the moms and women who need systems that work in their lives. Same founder. Same philosophy. Same belief that the right systems — built around your actual reality — change everything.