Originally from Georgia, Ashlea fell in love with New Orleans during the summer of 1999, in between her junior and senior year of college. Her best friend’s sister had just gotten a job at a hotel in New Orleans & offered the girls a room in her shotgun house off Bienville St. Isn’t it funny how a seemingly simple decision in your life can affect EVERYTHING that happens after that? Ashlea originally joined MSWIT while she was working at Where Traveler Magazine, after she’d moved back to New Orleans in 2018 Lois Sutton hired her & gave Stephanie Cantrell the charge of training. Stephanie quickly became her ‘work wife’ in her networking mission, mentoring her on her new role which involved A LOT OF networking, which Ashlea had never truly done before…especially in such a well connected SMALL town like this beloved New Orleans tourism industry. Ashlea was like “a kid in the candy store” as Stephanie & Lois showed her all that the city REALLY had to offer: the food that gets better and better because it’s created with real PASSION, the hotels that offer ridiculously amazing amenities and truly take a village to demonstrate because at the core of things it’s all about = SERVICE. HERE is where Ashlea fell in love with tourism: where everyone got an equal opportunity to show off what makes them & their teams so successful; as well as how important places like these are for people to be educated about, so they will visit them, and experience their enchantments and ideally, if we’ve done our jobs right, get them to fall in love with New Orleans the way WE love it. & it’s all down to the people. Being from Atlanta, Ashlea always ached for a ‘small town’. She graduated from high school with almost 800 other seniors, and for someone a bit shy, it felt ENORMOUS. But everything was different here, in New Orleans, and after attending a few MSWIT meetings in 2018, she was smitten & for the first time, felt like she had a women’s group she could fit-in perfectly with, a group of seasoned and not-so-seasoned tourism professionals, of all ages, that were so different and wonderful that insecurities literally flew out the window. So it took her by complete surprise when she was asked to be nominated to be VP of MSWIT, after not even being a member for a year. She was BLOWN away with excitement and pride because after all she saw they were already doing to impact and improve the tourism world & it’s leading ladies, she was bursting with ideas to continue to build enthusiasm and growth for the group. As VP she was excited to work with new tourism partners to find the ideal venues for the monthly meetings. When she joined there were only MSWIT nightly events in the city, but as a single-mom living in Metairie, it was sometimes challenging to be able to attend the meetings that she so looked forward to, since kids always came first, so she suggested things like incorporating brunches/lunches in the city to work with people’s work schedules better, as well as having meetings outside the city, occasionally, and with the members that have services in the greater nola areas/Jefferson parish area. MSWIT always had speakers at the events too so it was imperative she incorporate promoting our own MSWIT members more too, having them as speakers sharing their services & skills, so they started integrating that, as well as brainstorming an event with the other MSWIT chapter for the new year.

 

Then March 2020 hit. 3.7.20=Ashlea signed the lease at her new place after her marriage was officially over. 3.8.20=Ashea’s brother died in a motorcycle accident off I-85 in Atlanta. 3.9.20=The 1st official case of covid was confirmed in Louisiana. Venues were constantly changing and with the type of calculated planning that we’d had previously, scheduling big events and confirming RSVP’s was ever declining initially, with a bleak outlook. But they endured: Ashlea’s favorite MSWIT meeting of the past, was when she partnered with Christy Dillard, current MSWIT president, to have a ‘speed networking event’ at Game On’s previous space out in Metairie,Kenner area. Pre covid numbers were always high before, over 50 at minimum, AFTER covid, changed because every day things were changing, so when they had they had their first meeting have over 30 of the most enthusiastic participants ever try a new day-speed-get-to-know you event and eat during work hours amidst COVID was amazing. Christy had made personalized ‘get to know you sheets’. It was a fantastic post-covid success event. Every win was a big win then.

 

Ashlea is only now, 6 years later, truly feeling like she’s coming out of the fog of destruction that became of her life after her divorce, brother’s death & covid hit that weekend in March 2020. At that time she couldn’t have imagined losing everything, then even more in the months that followed all that…but she survived. As we all tend to do. Stronger, reborn, refocused and realigned with WHY this life is so important. & although to most everyone she’s still a ‘new member’, Ashlea, feels like she’s an integral part of MSWIT crew. She can’t wait to pitch her mentoring idea to the new initiatives on the table for the ‘next season’ of MSWIT too but in the meantime runs her own ashleaMedia.com company, working with past & current clients like Annunciation Restaurant, Visit Kenner, Jefferson Parish CVB, Game On Social Hub, Scott Equipment, Rosy’s Jazz Hall & Casino Marketing Boot Camp. She’s a writer at heart & is producing/directing her 1st short film this July 2026. Her favorite past times are gardening, traveling with her kids: Madi (25) & Max (16) & beaching. She currently resides in Kenner, LA with her son, & her humongous dog: Apollo.