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.

Ashleigh Axios smiles for a portrait.

Photo by David Wardrick, October 2022


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.

Eduardo F Ortiz and Ashleigh Axios, co-owners of Coforma, March 2022

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

Podcasts


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


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