Representative Ashley Carrick is a fourth generation, lifelong Alaskan, with a long family history in the Interior. In 2010, she moved from her hometown of Anchorage to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Secondary Education. Making West Fairbanks her home was an easy choice for Ashley: her grandmother grew up along the banks of the Chena River, and her great-grandfather made a career in aviation working with MarkAir and Wein Airlines. Later, Ashley’s grandmother raised her own family in Healy, Alaska, where she worked as the Tri-Valley school librarian and Ashley’s grandfather made his career as a 39-year Teamster at Usibelli Coal Mine. After visiting the Interior throughout her childhood, Ashley felt that Fairbanks was truly the “Golden Heart City,” and that her decision to head north for college was a homecoming a generation in the making. Ashley has worked as a substitute teacher in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, a counselor with the Rural Alaska Honors Institute, as a program coordinator at the American Lung Association in Alaska, as the executive director of the Tanana Valley Watershed Association, and as adjunct faculty with the Community and Technical College. In 2020, Ashley obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health from UAA’s Division of Population Health Sciences. Prior to running to represent House District 35, Ashley worked for six years as a legislative aide. For five years, she served State Representative Adam Wool as his Chief of Staff. Outside of work, Ashley lives on a 5-acre plot of undeveloped taiga forest.
