Ashleigh Axios is a business owner and executive, international speaker, and board leader championing equitable business, healthcare, and civic design.
Ashleigh Axios is a term trustee of the board of directors to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), a private art and design school in Providence, RI.
Ashleigh Axios recently completed her time as a senior executive team member and a co-owner at Coforma, a fast-growing digital consultancy. Axios also served as the President and Chair of the national board of directors for AIGA, the professional association of design. Axios formed and led the in-house creative agency for marketing, communications, and brand identity solutions at Automattic, a technology company on a mission to democratize publishing and commerce. Axios is well known for having served as the creative director and a digital strategist for the Obama White House, bridging two presidential terms in the Office of Digital Strategy. She is also a past president of AIGA Washington D.C., where she formed DotGovDesign, an initiative connecting and empowering government designers with regular meetings, a yearly conference, and online course. Read Ashleigh's resume to learn more about her professional history.
Ashleigh is a graduate from RISD. She resides in the DC area with her husband, Nathaniel Axios, and family.
Select Accolades
Engage Federal Citizen Services Honoree
OrangeSlices AI
2024
Ashleigh Axios is honored as an Engage Federal Citizen Services 2024 Honoree for driving bold approaches and innovative engagement strategies while supporting a culture of collaboration, communication, transparency, and partnership.
IGNITE Award Winner
GovTech Connects
2024
Ashleigh Axios has received the IGNITE 2024 award, recognizing women leaders advancing digital transformation in the federal government so that the public gets more reliable, efficient, trustworthy results.
Trailblazer AWard Finalist
ACG National Capital
2023
ACG National Capital recognizes executives who challenge the status quo to drive innovation in all facets of business to drive results, and who represent the next generation of leadership, for their contributions to the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area’s business community.
Small Business Persons of the year
U.S. Small Business Administration
2022
Eduardo F. Ortiz and Ashleigh Axios were selected as DC's Small Business Persons of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The award recognizes influential small business owners who make exceptional contributions to their community and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
G2X Change Agent Awardee
G2Xchange | FedHealthIT
2020
Recognizing Federal IT and Consulting leaders from industry and Government who are working every day to take calculated risks and positively disrupt the Federal market, while having a measurable impact on the culture and the critical missions of the organizations they serve.
Power Woman
in Design
DCFemTech
2016, 2017, 2019
Recognizing Power Women in Code, Design, and Data based in the Washington, DC region based on the nominations of the community.
32 Under 32
Magic Johnson
2016
Recognizing those who exhibit the professionalism, hard work, values and talents to lead tomorrow’s business culture.
A Powerful Black WomAn Calling the ShoTS
Essence Magazine
2015
Introducing the dynamic black women who were responsible for keeping President Obama’s administration running.
Select Interviews
MagazineS &
Online publications
Nasdaq in 2022, “Crafting Creative Solutions That Elevate Human Needs”
Offscreen in 2018, “The creative director of Obama’s White House calls on designers to tackle the biggest challenges of our time.”
28 Black Designers in 2018
The United State of Women in 2016
FastCompany: “How Designers Can Help The Black Lives Matter Movement” in 2016
Podcasts
Clever Podcast with Amy Devers in 2022
The Reflex Blue Show
with Donovan Beery in 2020The Design of Business | The Business of Design
with Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand in 2017Giant Thinkers Podcast
with Ram Castillo in 2017Revision Path
with Maurice Cherry in 2016
Public Speaking
Ashleigh wants to see diversity and equity across design, government, tech, and in the work produced in these spaces. She steps into the spotlight and shows herself — her journey, successes, and quirks — to help demonstrate that there’s also space for everyone. She works to see obstacles and burdens recognized and leveraged for the ingredients — empathy, endurance, grit, and the clear-eyed hope — they produce, which can be used to enact positive social change.
She has spoken at dozens of conferences, schools and institutions, and marketing, advertising, and design events across the globe. She often speaks about leadership, culture, innovation under pressure, value-built brands, inclusion in design and technology, design in government, the intersection of design and culture, and more.
To invite her speak, visit the Contact page and submit a thoughtful request.
Following are select speaking highlights.
Conferences
HOW Design Live
AIGA Design Conference
DesignThinkers
Design Observer
Spikes Asia
NextGen Government
The D&AD Festival
3% Conference
99U
AIGA Design Leadership + Advocacy Conference
Universities
Wesleyan
SVA
Harvard
Parsons
RISD
Yale
Companies
IBM
Mattel Inc
Oracle