Ashley Doolittle

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

Experience

1. Associate Director

   Dartmouth Center For Social Impact

   Dec 2015 — Present · Hanover, NH, US

   The Dartmouth Center for Social Impact (DCSI) prepares students to lead lives of purpose via community-driven learning opportunities in the social sector. My portfolio of work therein includes:Founding and successfully establishing the curricular Social Impact Practicum (SIP) initiative; Partnering with the Upper Valley community to catalog (and respond to) the universe of needs facing over 60 social sector organizations; Co-creating the vision and direction of the Center as part of the senior leadership team; Directing SEAD, Dartmouth\'s college access program supporting first-generation and low-income high school scholars throughout the Upper Valley; Aligning annual budgets and funding sources to best support the Center; Strategically recruiting, hiring, and mentoring staff and students across multiple portfolios of work; Publicly presenting on evidence-based learning outcomes to demonstrate impact with varied stakeholders; Thoughtfully balancing with one foot in the community social sector responding to the most pressing areas of inequity globally.and another intimately attending to the inner lives of students as they consider what it means to develop into a conscious and values-driven adult.

Education

• Trinity University

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Sociology and French

  2000 — 2004

• Duke University

  Master of Arts (M.A.), Sociology (Social Psychology and Crime/Incarceration)

  2004 — 2006

• Duke University

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Sociology

  2006 — 2010