Ashlee Kocina Young, M.Ed.

Ashlee Kocina Young serves as associate director for Expert Guidance with the First Scholars Initiatives®  in the Center for First-generation Student Success, NASPA. Prior to joining NASPA, Ashlee held a dual-appointment at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As the Assistant Director of the William H. Thompson Scholars Learning Community, a large, comprehensive college transition program for recipients of the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation Scholarship, Ashlee was responsible for community engagement programming and assessment. In her role as the Coordinator for First Generation Nebraska, Ashlee co-managed university-wide first-generation initiatives and served as the primary contact with Nebraska’s involvement as an inaugural First-gen Forward Institution, and in an advisory capacity.

A first-generation college graduate, Ashlee holds an M.Ed. in higher education administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is currently working on completing a Ph.D. in leadership studies, with a focus on multicultural leadership perspectives and first-generation leadership development beyond college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.