Ashley Ogwo

Ashley Ogwo joined College Park Scholars in January 2025 as the Coordinator for Student Engagement. In this role, she oversees programs that foster student development and community engagement, including Scholars Peer Mentors and the Lakeland STARs enrichment program. Ashley also executes annual events such as awards ceremonies, Scholars Under the Lights, and Find Your People. Likewise, she plays a pivotal role in expanding dialogue, service, and mental health and wellbeing initiatives across the program.

Ashley’s professional background centers on incoming college student transition and success, first-year undergraduate and graduate student initiatives, mentorship and advising for continuing students, and social justice, identity, and inclusion research and programming. 

Prior to joining Scholars, Ashley earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy from the University of Maryland. Her research explores intragroup dynamics within the Black diaspora, focusing on strengthening relationships and communication across Black ethnic groups, including Black Africans, Black Americans, and Black Caribbeans. Her broader professional interests include Black identity, communication, and expression across the African diaspora, as well as the creation of academic, social, and cultural spaces that amplify Black voices and experiences both inside and outside of academia.

During her doctoral program, Ashley served as the graduate assistant for the Higher Education program and as a research assistant on projects such as the National Science Foundation-funded Black Engineering Student Transfer (BEST) Project and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Post-Secondary System Opportunities project. She also gained teaching experience as a teaching assistant for multiple courses in Higher Education, supporting course design, facilitating discussions, delivering guest lectures, and providing student feedback. Additionally, Ashley was
a member of the Council on Racial Equity and Justice, where she co-designed a racial equity assessment plan and engaged in qualitative data analysis to evaluate student experiences related to racial climate and discrimination. Ashley has co-authored and published several articles and a book chapter on topics such as institutional supports for Black engineering students in the transfer pipeline and peer mentorship, sisterhood, and retention strategies for new Black women academics.

In addition to her role with Scholars, Ashley serves as a lecturer in the Higher Education program in the College of Education and runs her own consulting LLC. She earned her Master of Arts in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her Bachelor of Arts in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience with dual minors in American Culture and Gender and Health from the University of Michigan.

She is originally and proudly from Detroit, Michigan.