Ashley

Ashley is a Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate (LPCC) and is the manager of the RISE program at Denver Health, providing confidential peer support to Denver Health personnel. She is passionate about mental health and removing stigma for those seeking support.  She graduated with a master's in International Disaster Psychology from DU.

 

Ashley Cornelius is the 6th Pikes Peak Region Poet Laureate. Her poetry focuses on empowerment, self-care, body positivity, intersectionality, and systemic oppression. Ashley is sought after across the nation for speaking engagements and workshop facilitation. She is recognized for her work around domestic violence and sexual assault, self-love and body positivity, self-care, mental health, and racial equity workshops.

 

Ashley was awarded the Bee an Arts Champion award from the Bee Vradenburg Foundation in 2021. She is a Colorado Business Journal Rising Star class of 2021 and a finalist of the 2021 Mayor Young Leader Award. She won Gold for the Colorado Springs Independent Best of Artist Category 2019. She has won multiple poetry slams in Colorado Springs. She was the Women of the World Poetry Slam Colorado Springs representative and competed in Dallas at Nationals in March 2018. She has been featured at Tedx Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak Community College, the Colorado Springs Women's March, Denver Public Library, and the Colorado Nonprofit Association. Ashley is the Co-Director of Poetry 719, a poetry group lifting the voices of marginalized communities and BIPOC folks through poetry. Ashley was nominated for two 2018 Pikes Peak Art Council (PPAC) awards and won the best recurring poetry event. She aims to inspire, empower, evoke change with her poetry. Ashley has a background in poetry education and was the Program Director of an art nonprofit in Denver focused on poetry workshops and curriculum. Ashley is committed to using poetry as a platform to speak up and out for marginalized groups and be a voice for those who have been silenced.