Millwork Conversations: Ashlei Spivey

…a bold leader that actively works to create just communities. In her work as a social entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist, she champions racial and gender justice to create transformational system change. She is a graduate of Jackson State University where she studied communications and marketing, then attending University of Texas Arlington for her master’s program in urban social planning. She has spent the last decade of her professional career working in spaces from organizational development to philanthropy.

A thread through all of Ashlei’s work is creating and championing Black liberation which is evident in the two organizations she founded, Young Black & Influential Omaha and I Be Black Girl. I Be Black Girl (IBBG), a collective that supports Black women, femmes and girls to access their full potential through economic and reproduction freedom. IBBG has had outsized impact since inception in 2017, like investing over $200,000 in Black women, femmes and girls through grants and other resources. In 2019, Ashlei was chosen as an ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellow, an inaugural 2020 Black Futures Lab Policy Fellow, and proudly serves on the ACLU of Nebraska board of directors as Board President & Equity Officer. She is also a Tribute to Women, NAACP Freedom Fund, Ten Outstanding Young Omahan and 40 Under 40 awardee.