Ash Whitwell

Background

About Ash Whitwell

A proud member of the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, my story begins on a small farm in rural Idaho. The many hours alone on a tractor cultivating beans (Reds and Pintos), watering the winter wheat and barley, digging corgates, and watching sunsets on the high desert through the summers of my youth, has made me into a person who is hardworking and focused, and yet, introspective, imaginative, and creative. As I grew in adulthood, my path in life has been varied and diverse. I have cleaned toilets for a living, hung on the outside of skyscrapers (little ones, 22 stories max), cooked in restaurants, sold cars, and been a good financial advisor, who just wasn't great at selling. I have owned successful businesses, worked two jobs to make ends meet, won and lost a few small fortunes, and reinvented myself many times. These experiences have provided me the greatest lessons in diverse perspectives, teamwork, and the value of the people with which one works. The past twenty years I've spent working with young people whether through coaching youth football, providing campus security and coaching at a high school, or working at the library of the university, where I was in charge of hiring. My guiding principle through this time is the phrase "be the person you needed when you were young", and, to be quite honest, I could have used a lot of advice when I was young, trust me. It is my time working with young people and my colleagues that I learned many management skills including authenticity, transparency, and getting valuable insight from my coworkers with varied perspectives on my ideas, or plans. My education has been nearly as diverse as my professional life. My first bachelor's degree is in Ancient History focused on Rome during the late republic and the Constantinian era. With that degree, I learned to read and write Latin after spending hours each day, for two years, translating authors from Cicero or Caesar to Tertullian and Saint Augustine. Through this educational experience I learned attention to detail, the subtleties of language, classical leadership, and historical perspective. My second degree is in the Management of Information Systems through which I learned Database Management, System Analysis and Design, Enterprise Architecture, and Project Management. However, I found, and refined, through this process, my own skill at seeing systems, processes, and organizations from a foot view. Alas, the character limit won't allow further details, if you'd like to know more about me, please reach out.