Ashley Doolittle

Background

About Ashley Doolittle

A lifelong enthusiast, I seek out opportunities at the intersection of passion and purpose. Trained as a sociologist, I build on this foundation in my current role as Associate Director at the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact where orchestrating multi-stakeholder collaborations through meaningful dialogue, innovative pedagogy, and applied learning scaffolds my work in myriad ways. My appetite for authentic partnership is met outside of the professional sphere as an engaged board member and previously as both an instructor of mindfulness in Massachusetts prisons and a hospice volunteer. In sum, a hallmark of my life course over the past 15+ years has been diving into complex problems while honoring the wisdom that comes from holistic engagement with this messy-and-beautiful world. Equally dedicated to my own experiential learning, my insatiable curiosity has led me to discover the joys of cultivating asparagus and blueberries in my garden, insight meditation, wooden jigsaw puzzles, playing the banjo (badly), and snowboarding, to name a few. In my more tranquil moments, I love nothing more than curling up with a book (fantasy or science-fiction), a giant mug of tea (jasmine), and some chocolate (as dark as I can find). Ultimately, I believe that tackling the most important challenges of our time calls for more bridge-building and less division; more responsiveness and less reactivity; more “yes, how?” and less “no, because”; more thoughtful engagement and less fearful avoidance. Not an easy charge, but a deeply worthy one that I have found to be an accurate compass guiding my professional and personal trajectory thus far."[D]on’t go because you’ve fallen in love with solvability. Go because you’ve fallen in love with complexity. Don’t go because you want to do something virtuous. Go because you want to do something difficult. Don’t go because you want to talk. Go because you want to listen."-Courtney Martin