Ash Hanson, ukulele/voice

Ash has over 20 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Creative Executive Officer (CEO) with Department of Public Transformation, a nonprofit working at the intersection of creativity and civic life with rural communities across the country. She is the Founder/Director of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life and exploring imagined futures. She is also a musician and plays locally in Moab with the folk band, The Family Trade. She was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and Bush Fellow for her creative civic leadership work with rural communities. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre with a focus on Rural Community Development. She is a Leo, an outdoor enthusiast, and a lover of magic and adventures who believes deeply in the power of sharing stories on front porches, karaoke as an organizing strategy, engaging in radical acts of play, and the overuse of exclamation points!