Ashley Orr

Dr. Ashley Orr is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. Her research and teaching apply economic models to social and economic problems, considering how public policy might intervene to address market failures, reduce poverty and inequality, and support workers, families, children and communities in Ohio and across the country.

Ashley received her Doctorate in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Fellow. She earned a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She is a first-generation college graduate, earning a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Youngstown State University.

Her current research investigates structural barriers, labor market frictions and inequities that contribute to the geographic inequality of opportunities. She leverages econometrics, statistical analysis, randomized interventions and experiments in her research and enjoys collaborating with community organizations and interdisciplinary and community-based teams. Ashley has collaborated with nonprofit organizations in northeast Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania on research projects, studying worker retention, job search and job training programs. Ashley is passionate about expanding access to human capital development and economic opportunities and is an evidence-based teacher-scholar, publishing in education journals such as the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and policy journals including The Journal of Science Policy and Governance.

In addition to her work at The Ohio State University, Ashley is an affiliated researcher with the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame. The National Science Foundation, the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Block Center for Technology and Society at Carnegie Mellon University have funded her research. Before joining The Ohio State University, Ashley served as an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, and St. Catherine’s University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.