Ashley K. Shelton is the Founder, President and CEO of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, a statewide 501c3 table in Louisiana. The Power Coalition uses a broad-based strategy that combines community organizing, issue advocacy, and civic action all while increasing the capacity of community organizations throughout the state to sustain and hold the work. Mrs. Shelton has led both C3 and C4 strategies to move almost one million voters throughout the state of Louisiana having significant impact in elections in the major metros including New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport. Our integrated voter engagement approach has changed policy at the municipal and state level as well as move infrequent voters of color to vote at the same levels as chronic voters in the communities where we run a full get out to vote program.

The Power Coalition is a spinoff organization of One Voice. As the former Louisiana Director of One Voice, Mrs. Shelton led a series of coordinated campaigns while anchoring and supporting the development of the 501c3 table that is now The Power Coalition.

Prior to this role, Mrs. Shelton was the Vice President of Programs at the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF).  Mrs. Shelton managed LDRF’s system of integrated, value-added programs with the goal of creating a better Louisiana for all of its citizens in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Prior to this, Ms. Shelton served as Director of Grantmaking for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.  Ms. Shelton has received many honors, including selection as a 2005-2006 Fellow in the Emerging Leaders Program at Duke University and the University of Cape Town, and was appointed in 2003 to the Foundation for the Mid South’s Commission to Build Philanthropy.  Ms. Shelton attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications.