Faculty Representative to the Board, 2023-2025
Ashby is a professor of inclusive special education and disability studies and the director of the Center on Disability and Inclusion, a center that works to develop and implement initiatives promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of school and society—both locally and globally. She is also the coordinator of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to certification in childhood and special education. Since joining the faculty in 2007, her teaching and research has focused on inclusive education, communicative diversity, disability studies and inclusive teacher preparation, with specific emphasis on the experiences of autistic students and others considered to have complex support needs. Her work seeks to disrupt dominant notions of disability as deficiency and underscores the importance of centering the voices of disabled people in research and practice.
Ashby earned an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York College at Geneseo and a master’s in special education, certificate of advanced study in disability studies and Ph.D. in special education from Syracuse University. She was an inclusive special education teacher before beginning her university career. Ashby’s work has been published in journals including “Equity and Excellence in Education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, Disability and Society, Teacher Education and Special Education, and Intellectual and Developmental Disability.” Her co-edited book, “Enacting Change from Within: Disability Studies Meets Teaching and Teacher Education” explores how disability studies can inform the practical work of teachers. She is also the co-editor of “Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning.”
Ashby recently served as co-chair of the Public Impact Working Group for the Academic Strategic Plan and has been a member of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Senate since 2018. She was also selected as a member of the inaugural Women in Leadership cohort.
Ashby is serving the first year of a two-year term as faculty representative during the 2023-24 academic year. She participates, ex officio, on the Board Academic Affairs Committee and reports to the Board at Executive Committee and full Board meetings.