Ashlyn Shockley Martin

Ashlyn Shockley Martin is a dynamic leader with extensive experience in government relations, health and education policy, and the law. She is an attorney specializing in real estate, family law, and estate planning and a co-founder and former partner of Abbott Martin LP, a boutique experiential marketing firm serving multicultural markets.

In 2020, Ashlyn briefly served as the Political Director for a United States Senate campaign. She is the former National Policy Director for New Leaders Council (NLC), a nonprofit that has trained more than 7,000 progressive nonprofit and political entrepreneurs. In that capacity, Ashlyn oversaw various programs, including the Millennial Compact, Millennial Policy Initiative, and NLC Caucus Coalition. A 2013 NLC alumna, she has also served as a member of NLC’s national programs committee and is a former co-director of the Atlanta chapter.

As the Executive Director of the National Council on Youth Sports Safety (NCYSS), a nonprofit chaired by former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, Ashlyn planned a national conference and 10-city listening tour and managed an advisory council of 20 experts in youth and professional sports, public policy, medicine, science, and the media. Martin has worked as a Legislative and Operations Director for former Georgia House Representative Alisha Thomas Morgan and as an aide to Georgia State Senator and Democratic Leader Steve Henson. While attending law school, Ashlyn clerked in the Office of General Counsel for Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois. She was elected as the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) National Attorney General and planned the largest Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Lobby Day events in the organization’s history. In 2012, she chaired the Atlanta chapter of Young and Powerful for Obama and fundraised for the two-term President in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

Ashlyn serves as a member of the SRBLSA Advisory Board, as a Bridge Builders Esq. mentor, and a member of the board for NewPower Education, a nonpartisan nonprofit that educates and encourages the engagement of women in public service. She previously served on the inaugural Families First Young Professionals Board and as a vice president of the board of directors for Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia. Ashlyn is a past chair of the Political Action Committee for the Georgia Association for Black Women Attorneys. In 2016, Ashlyn’s professional and voluntary endeavors led to recognition as one of Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40.

Ashlyn received her Bachelor of Arts from The George Washington University, a Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and a Master of Laws with a concentration in Policy with Honors from Emory University School of Law. In 2020, she obtained a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She is a graduate of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University and the Georgia WIN List Leadership Academy.

Ashlyn has completed the Georgia Women’s Policy Institute and Zell Miller Leadership Institute. She has served as a community organizer for VoteRunLead. In 2019, she was named a United State of Women Ambassador. She enjoys traveling and resides in her hometown, Atlanta, with her three sons.

Ashlyn on her sheroes: I am in awe of the strength, resilience, courage, and brilliance of so many trailblazers, including Shirley Chisholm, Sonia Sotomayor, Tarana Burke, Delores Huerta, Kamala Harris, Constance Baker Motley, and Gloria Ladson-Billings. The Chisholm Leadership Academy exists to tell their stories and to prepare the next generation of young women to write their own.