Ashley Edwards, an MFS 2008 graduate, has been named to the prestigious list.
Ashley Edwards, Moorestown Friends School Class of 2008 and former Lumberton resident, has been named to the “Forbes’” list of “30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.”
Edwards is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of MindRight. MindRight’s mission is to help at-risk youth recover from trauma. Its vision is to leverage technology to make mental health support accessible to every child living in poverty. MindRight provides personalized mental health education over text message to youth who have experienced community violence, abuse, neglect and poverty-related stressors.
In the spring, she visited Moorestown Friends School to provide keynote remarks for honorees and families at the Cum Laude Society and World Languages banquet. She spoke passionately about her career path in the non-profit sector.
“I love who I am in this work and I love who I have become doing this work,” Edwards said. “And if I could give one thing freely — it would be the the gift of knowing that you’ve changed a life. That is the gift I hope each of you can experience if you have not already.”
After graduating from Moorestown Friends School in 2008, she attended Yale University where she received an undergraduate degree in economics in 2012 and the Yale Franciscus Fellowship in Entrepreneurship. Edwards is a 2016 graduate of Stanford University where she received an M.B.A. and a master of education degree. Prior to studying at Stanford, Edwards served as Director of Operations for the first “blended learning” charter high school in New Jersey — Newark Prep Charter School where traditional face-to-face classroom instruction was blended with online learning. She developed the school’s operations and data management system from launch to more than 200 students. Her experiences at this charter school inspired her to work toward eliminating barriers to educational achievement for inner-city youth.
In the past, Edwards has worked in venture philanthropy through an M.B.A. internship with the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and with Ekya Schools in Bangalore, India, where she helped to develop innovative school models. Additionally, she has served in various positions including at Atrium Capital, where she was responsible for conducting due diligence on edtech investment opportunities; at Google where she served as a BOLD Intern in People Operations and, at Capital Micro Credit in Uganda, where she worked in microfinance lending and co-led entrepreneurship training classes at Makerere University.
Edwards has received many awards for her entrepreneurial work including the 2017 Camelback Ventures Fellowship, 2017 Halcyon Incubator Fellowship, 4.0 Schools Tiny Fellowship and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Social Change Leader Award.
