Ashley joined CDCB in June 2024 as Support Scientist, a new position to provide scientific and technical assistance in various research projects and ensure successful execution, reporting, and implementation of priorities in the CDCB strategic plan.
For the previous two years, Ashley worked as Research Geneticist at USDA. Her work included building efficient pipelines for analysis of genomic data, investigation of genetic variation and genotype-by-environment interactions for body condition score in beef cattle, evaluation of statistical models for analysis of longevity data, and a variety of additional projects.
Ashley’s training is from the University of Georgia, where she earned a Ph.D. in animal breeding and genetics under Dr. Romdhane Rekaya and a B.S. A. in animal science. While a graduate research assistant at UGA, she was engaged in research on statistical challenges to preselection of SNP markers, data collection and BLUP analysis to characterize heritability of hornfly tolerance in beef cattle, collection of beef and poultry phenotype data, and research documentation in manuscripts and peer-reviewed journals.