"Poetry as Activism and Healing"

Ashley Cornelius is an LPCC ( Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate), and is the RISE Program Assistant at Denver Health. She has her Master's degree in International Disaster Psychology from DU. She has worked internationally in Liberia, as a psychology teacher at the University of Harper. Domestically she has worked on an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit for the past 4 years and used poetry therapy and ACT as her therapeutic modalities.

She is a nationally recognized spoken word poet in Colorado. She won Gold, for the Colorado Springs Independent Best of Artist Category 2019 and was the Women of the World Poetry Slam Colorado Springs representative in 2018.  She has been featured by the NAACP, TedX Colorado springs, Voyager Denver, NAMI, Pikes Peak Community College, the Colorado Springs Women's March,  At the Ink Well, The Mercury Cafe and events in Denver and Colorado Springs.

Ashley is the Co-Director of Poetry 719 a black-run poetry group in Colorado Springs that amplified the voices of marginalized communities and people of color through art and creative self-expression.  She has a background in poetry education and was the Program Director of an arts nonprofit in Denver focused on poetry workshops and curriculum. Ashley is committed to using poetry as a platform to speak up and out for marginalized groups and be a voice for those who have been silenced.