A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Ashlee studied religion and sociology at Wake Forest University and received an M.Div. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1991. For four years, she served as the Southern Baptist chaplain at Harvard University and then spent a year working with Sabeel Liberation Theology Center and the Middle East Council of Churches in Jerusalem. In 1998 Ashlee completed an S.T.M. degree in religion and society from the Andover Newton Theological School. Having received standing in the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, she served as an interim pastor in Allston, MA and as an associate pastor at Seattle First Baptist Church.

She has served in short-term mission in Thailand, Haiti, and the Republic of Georgia in addition to speaking at theological ecumenical encounters in Tanzania and Brazil. Her passion for mission defines every aspect of her ministry. In 2018, she earned a Master of Divinity degree at Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico and in 2020 a certificate as Project Management Professional (PMP®). She is an ordained minister in Iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico since 2022.