Meleah Ashford joined ARCS Foundation Oregon in 2015 and was instrumental in crafting our Inclusive Excellence statement early in 2020. She has been active with DEI on ARCS National board for the past four years. At the chapter level, Meleah has served as VP or Co-VP of Scholar Relations for three years and is in her third year as VP or Co-VP for University Relations. Those of us who know Meleah appreciate her thoughtful approach to every task and question; she is a scientist, after all, so this should probably not surprise us. Under her leadership, ARCS Oregon has adopted a perpetual site visit calendar, and the activities and events included in site visits now offer any member or guest the opportunity to attend.
Meleah grew up on a farm in La Grande, Oregon, and describes herself as a "country girl." Her dad worked for the USDA. Both parents were cut from adventurous cloth, so when a travel assignment arose that would send their family to Kenya, both jumped at the opportunity. In 1968, the family of six, including 8-year-old Meleah, traveled to Africa, exploring other areas of the world along the way. They spent the next three years in Nairobi, where the children were allowed the time and freedom to explore and entertain themselves. Meleah remembers building roads and bridges for her Matchbox trucks in her backyard (where monkeys roamed freely). She believes her tendencies toward science (particularly engineering) likely developed during these sessions, where she was immersed in nature, exploring and solving problems. Meleah vividly remembers rising to the challenge of finding the perfect angle for switchbacks for her Matchbox trucks to travel!
In 1971, the family returned to eastern Oregon. The return trip (by sea) took three weeks, including stops in England and Vancouver, B.C. Meleah's education in Nairobi set her up for success when she returned to the U.S. In middle and high school, she was influenced by both her earth science and math teachers. The latter suggested that her skills might suit her for a career in engineering (though an aptitude test predicted her best career option was to be a long-haul truck driver!). Meleah researched engineering options and determined that civil engineering would be a good fit. She enrolled in OSU, where she met Scott Ashford. They graduated on June 6, 1973, and were married just five days later.
The following decades saw Meleah and Scott continuing their education, advancing their careers, and raising their two boys. These adventures took them first to Texas and later to the Bay Area. In 1994, they relocated to Thailand after Scott successfully applied for a position advertised in the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineering) magazine. Looking for creative work, Meleah devised roles for herself, teaching English to Thai engineering students and writing reports for engineering professors. This endeavor required her to travel to various remote locations to evaluate projects. When the family returned to the U.S., Meleah worked at an engineering company involved in a pollution-related water project, while Scott worked at UCSD. The family lived in Encinitas for 12 years, where Meleah started her own consulting company, Ashford Engineering, Inc., leading her into the watershed management field.
In 2007, Oregon State University recruited Scott, and Meleah closed her California-based business. OSU's nascent ocean and wave energy group hired Meleah as a program manager, and from 2009-2012, she was instrumental in building the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center. At that point, Meleah realized there was a gap in opportunities for mature adults to learn about estate planning. Always interested in finances, she decided to obtain a Life Coach Certificate. She started her business, Find Solid Ground Coaching, and in 2020, Meleah began working with a nonprofit group called Stand by Me, where she developed a grant-funded financial coaching program that was free to clients.
If you see a common theme in these adventures, you are correct: Meleah is happiest when developing a program that has never existed. Whether teaching English to engineering students in Thailand, building her own engineering consulting business, setting up a renewable energy center, or building a financial coaching business, that is her happy place.
What's next? A book! Meleah is a strong proponent of what she calls "feminine energy." As a woman in STEM, she has found herself most creative when in the presence of other women or individuals who approach problems differently than the typical male-dominated STEM culture. She believes attention to feminine energy can help develop novel solutions to persistent problems. Women can change how problems are solved in STEM, and Meleah is determined to bring women into the spaces where solutions in STEM are developed and accessed, recognizing their power to transform how problems are solved. She has contributed short pieces on this and related topics to the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) magazine and is working on a book that will lay out this thesis and suggest pathways for women to survive and thrive in their STEM careers.
Meleah, thank you for bringing your great ideas and your feminine energy to ARCS Foundation Oregon. We appreciate your generosity and your thoughtful insights, and we look forward to reading your book as soon as it hits the stands! (Learn more about Find Solid Ground at https://findsolidground.com/index.html and Stand By Me, at https://www.ocwcog.org/community-services-programs/stand-by-me/)
