Ask Ashley

Diversity headline numbers get people in the door, but they say nothing about who gets developed, who gets useful feedback, and who moves up. Niki Madison-Woodburn, Senior Talent Management & Inclusion Program Manager at Lattice, works on the systems behind that gap, looking at the whole employee lifecycle so growth is clear and measurable. She talks with Ashley Russo about the people plus AI approach at Lattice, a quarterly storytelling activation that builds common ground across teams, managing anxiety by silencing the noise, and the company kickoff moment when a colleague told her she saw Niki light up like never before.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley

00:43 Meet Niki Madison-Woodburn

01:40 Where owning your uniqueness took root

03:05 Curiosity and the move from customer success

04:12 Priorities across your 20s, 30s and now

06:36 When the work got hard and finding the spark again

08:07 Past headline numbers to equitable systems

09:34 Looking at the whole employee lifecycle

10:12 People plus AI and solving the real problem

12:11 Building common ground through storytelling

14:17 Grounding yourself, anxiety and silencing the noise

16:04 The company kickoff moment she lit up

19:07 Helping others past their hesitation

21:22 What she would pause and what she would accelerate

23:17 Advice to her younger self

You can follow Niki Madison-Woodburn here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/niki-madison/

Learn more about Lattice:

Website - https://lattice.com

Alex Anderson launched the first AI chatbot at Pushpay and spends her days on the exact point where automation meets people asking for help. She talks with Ashley Russo about keeping human empathy in the loop when customers reach out, and why she believes no company has cracked a fully automated support experience yet. Alex is a Senior Customer Insights and Experience Specialist at Pushpay, and her route there ran through Child Protective Services, technology recruiting, and a flag football startup. She carries the oldest-sibling instinct into her work: open doors, meet people where they are, help one person at a time.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley

01:02 Meet Alex Anderson

01:27 Growing up fast as the oldest sibling

03:15 Taking her sister in the week before her wedding

05:11 Believing the best in people and paying it forward

05:50 From Child Protective Services to forensic science

07:42 The path to Pushpay and transferable skills

09:07 How Pushpay funds real world mission work

11:01 AI, human empathy, and responsible support

13:14 Designing customer experience without friction

14:35 Refocusing the women's ERG on core pillars

15:39 Supporting parents and moms at work

18:04 Change happens one person at a time

19:06 Advice to her younger self

You can follow Alex Anderson here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-anderson22/

Learn more about Pushpay:

Website - https://pushpay.com

Lacey Elliot spent a decade as a makeup artist before entering tech at 30, and she carries both worlds into her work. She is GTM Enablement & Strategy Leader at SoundHound AI, where she built out a pre-boarding customer experience team that saves a minimum of five thousand dollars a week on net new deals in North America and rolled out nearly four training courses in her first year. In this conversation with Ashley Russo she talks about a difficult divorce, learning to let herself fail, using Claude to scale her team's work, and why she still believes no robot can replace human touch.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introductions

01:12 Growing up as the funny youngest of three

03:15 New York, makeup artistry, and a decade of deconstruction

05:30 Marrying an artist's background with a later start in tech

07:35 Building community and creating enablement tools

10:15 Where Lacey lands on AI and human connection

12:12 We don't let ourselves get bored anymore

13:01 Measuring results, ROI, and personal satisfaction

17:04 Honesty without kindness is cruelty

18:59 What suffering taught her about empathy

20:23 Gratitude in lack and in plenty

23:20 Creating space for vulnerability on a team

24:33 One thing she would tell her child self

You can follow Lacey Elliot here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceyelliot/

Learn more about SoundHound AI:

Website - https://soundhound.com

A six figure salary can arrive without any family playbook for what to do with it. Betty Woods, Global Program Lead on the Scaled Success team at Miro, talks with Ashley Russo about growing up multicultural in New Jersey, leading Miro's black excellence community, and pushing back on branding that missed the mark. She makes the case that AI is a tool for brainstorming and strategy while human conversation gives the ideas that matter, and she shares why she started working with a financial planner to plan around stock options and care for her family.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Ask Ashley

00:54 Meet Betty Woods of Miro

01:05 Family, heritage, and community

02:12 Her grandmother's strength

03:21 Growing up with an LGBTQ plus mom

04:55 Being the only one in the room

05:22 Bringing empathy to work and the black excellence community

07:21 Five years at Miro and what keeps her invested

09:08 Diverse groups and the use of AI

12:42 Why humans won't be replaced by AI

14:33 Balancing the day job and side pursuits

17:32 First-time wealth builders and stock options

20:04 Advice to her younger self

You can follow Betty Woods here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettywoods

Learn more about Miro:

Website - https://miro.com

Jahmai Brown was failing every class with 55s across the board, smoking weed before school, and drifting through the hallways with no sense of direction. A principal, a report card that went home to two disappointed parents, and a mentor named Mr. Washington who told him straight what his life could become changed the path. Jahmai Brown, IT Specialist at BuzzFeed Inc., talks with Ashley Russo about the Harlem mentoring program that refocused him, the summer school exam that stood between him and graduation, and the ERG work that brought Thurgood Marshall Academy students into BuzzFeed for Black History Month.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley

00:43 Meet Jahmai Brown

01:19 Growing up in Harlem and finding Thurgood Marshall Academy

03:03 The mentors and Brothers on a New Direction

07:56 Turning 55s into a turnaround

11:51 Two disappointed parents and a wake up call

14:27 Missing graduation and the summer school exam

16:12 From soul food kitchen to a tech career

20:30 Leading the ERG at BuzzFeed

22:55 Black History Month and bringing students back to school

28:00 One thing he'd tell his younger self

You can follow Jahmai Brown here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jahmaibrown6824b1126

Daniel Torres paid off roughly $40,000 in student loans and credit card debt, then taught himself to invest by running his own accounts alongside a fully managed one to see if he could match it. He did. Daniel is a Strategic Customer Success Account Manager at Docusign, born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn, who watched his father build businesses from mowing golf courses to wholesale, put a family car payment on his own credit card during the 2008 crisis, and now leads Docusign's Latinx ERG as culture co-chair. He talks with Ashley Russo about family, money, and what he can control at work.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and introducing Daniel Torres

02:00 How his father's businesses shaped his drive

04:09 His mother's path from stay at home mom to legal assistant

06:19 The credit lesson his parents passed down

07:52 Moving to Florida and stepping in during the 2008 crisis

10:00 What sacrifice for family taught him

11:33 Carrying community into his career

14:29 From ERG member to global culture co-chair

17:33 Finance as common ground across communities

19:14 Paying off debt, saving, and learning to invest

23:16 Facing tech layoffs and controlling what you can

27:31 Advice to his younger self

You can follow Daniel Torres here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-torres-217a6214/

Learn more about Docusign:

Website - https://docusign.com

Empathy and business results pull in the same direction, and Steven Holt has spent his career proving it. Steven is a Human Resources Business Partner at Apple whose path ran through Google DeepMind, Tesla, Archer Aviation and Uber, and started with a year each in Ukraine and Moldova at 18. He lost his father to brain cancer at five, grew up in a single parent home of four kids, and now works alongside AI while guarding what makes people human. He talks with Ashley Russo about all of it.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley

00:59 Steven's start in Ukraine and Moldova

02:23 A stroke of luck: seven and a half years at Google

04:19 Tesla, Archer Aviation, Uber, and joining Apple

05:38 Why move through so many companies

07:23 Growing up in the Valley in a single parent home

10:16 Holding empathy alongside revenue goals

13:11 Using AI without losing your own thinking

17:45 Keeping the employee experience real

20:26 Team Human and the human experience

23:40 Staying grounded through hard things

27:32 What he would say to his younger self

You can follow Steven Holt here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-j-holt/

Grace at work gets read as weakness, and Jennifer Fields makes the opposite case: extending it takes more courage than bringing the hammer down, and it serves the bottom line. Jennifer Fields is Chief Delivery Officer at Acklen Avenue, where she leads an international team. She started as a software developer after a computer science advisor, Barbara Doyle, talked her out of pre-med and into one class. She talks with Ashley Russo about building trust so people tell you the truth, rewarding dissent, and why the investment you make in people is the only thing that lasts.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley

00:43 Meeting Jennifer Fields

01:21 From pre-med to software

04:07 Being the only woman in the room

06:15 Changing the dress code at 21

07:37 Building culture with trust and empathy

09:46 Bias, triggers and pushing past them

10:35 Rewarding dissent and divergent views

12:46 Creating conflict on purpose

15:12 Community without segmentation

20:17 Why grace serves the bottom line

22:15 Retention and people who come back

24:24 How Jennifer fills her own cup

26:53 Advice to her younger self

28:38 Valuing people over the profit they bring

You can follow Jennifer Fields here:

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/jennifer-fields-0b40aa4

Learn more about Acklen Avenue:

Website - https://acklenavenue.com

Nakita Duffus wants everyone who touches a product or walks into a room to leave feeling capable. Growing up in a Jamaican household in New York as the older sibling to her brother David, who had down syndrome, she learned to advocate early, and she carries that into her work today. Nakita is a Support Specialist at CallRail, a UX practitioner, and lead of the divergent minds ERG. She talks with Ashley Russo about neurodiversity at work, building community across employee resource groups, using AI to automate small tasks while keeping humans for the vision, and the advice she would give her younger self.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Ask Ashley

00:43 Meet Nakita Duffus

01:08 Growing up as an advocate for her brother David

03:36 A problem solving mindset from an early age

04:35 How advocacy shaped her move into tech

05:56 The customer call that stayed with her

06:56 Leading the divergent minds ERG at CallRail

08:58 Serving employees at the intersections

10:22 Intentionality over budget in ERG events

11:15 The Mental Health Awareness Month panel

12:32 Building trust and preventing knowledge silos

14:52 Helping people show up as their authentic selves

17:00 AI, human capital, and using AI for the boring stuff

19:15 Moving fast and informed at the same time

20:24 The influence of her brother and her mom

21:48 Self-care, mental health, and making a sandwich

23:49 Blending personal passions with professional life

25:16 What she would tell her younger self

26:17 Closing thoughts

You can follow Nakita Duffus here:

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/nakita-duffus-446244197

Learn more about CallRail:

Website - https://callrail.com

Skills now depreciate in weeks, and the AI revolution is reshaping work faster than any industrial shift before it. Shashank Bhushan, Head HR, Americas & Global People Partner at Amagi, has spent over 25 years in HR and business, moving through nine cities and two continents, and once stepped from leading HR to running an operation as CEO. He talks with Ashley Russo about handling layoffs with respect, anchoring diversity in values, building learning by osmosis, and mapping career paths with AI. His steady, people first perspective is worth your time.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Ask Ashley

00:54 Meet Shashank Bhushan

01:23 The book on his desk right now

01:44 What drew him to technology during Y2K

02:59 Career turning points and becoming a CEO

04:30 The fifth industrial revolution and the future of work

07:13 Layoffs, and why it is not about you

10:25 The human and family behind an employee ID

11:57 Leading through diversity and inclusion

13:33 Learning by osmosis and the book club experiment

16:36 Building community and social groups at work

19:13 Upskilling people from point A to point B

21:37 Where his steadiness comes from

22:20 The soft skill leaders need most

23:31 Fixing how organizations communicate

25:04 Advice to his younger self

You can follow Shashank Bhushan here:

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/bhushanshashank

Learn more about Amagi:

Website - https://amagi.com