May Breakfast Meeting Keynoter:
Ashley Elizabeth Graham
Communications Director, Tennesseans for Student Success
Managing Failure Into Success
What if the keys to success aren’t what you’ve always been told they are? What if we learned to see failure as a stepping stone, rather than a defeat?
From her days at the White House to the halls of Congress, from crafting nationwide messages for billion-dollar week-long events to running a statewide communications plan---and every minute in between--Graham has learned this: "My greatest successes have come when I've managed failure."
Failure is inevitable, and we do ourselves a grand disservice by not denying it exists, dreading its visit and not preparing for it. So…starting today…let’s start staring failure in its face. Let’s start preparing for it, analyzing it, and learning from it.
About Ashley Elizabeth Graham
Ashley Elizabeth Graham is Communications Director for Tennesseans for Student Success, a statewide organization formed to advance and protect the historic gains made in education in Tennessee. From 2010 until 2014, she served as Deputy Communications Director for the United States House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., and before that she was a speechwriter for the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Early in her career, Graham worked on the Jim Tracy for Senate campaign, the Susan B. Anthony List, in Public Affairs for the General Services Administration, and at The White House, the Executive Office of the President, as Deputy Director of Presidential Writers. Graham continues her pro bono work through Sadler Communications.
In 2014, Graham received the Young Alumni Achievement Award from Middle Tennessee State University, the highest award given to a MTSU alumnus under the age of 35. She serves as National Committeewoman for the Tennessee Federation of Young Republicans, and is a member of MayPAC, 40 under 40, chosen as one of 10 key political leaders under the age of 40 across the United States. In 2012, Graham received the Nancy Walton Laurie Leadership Institute of Chi Omega Award, and in 2011 was chosen as a NASA Social Media Recipient, one of 150 social media influencers worldwide, leveraging social media.