Frazer Center is fortunate to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with our own Ashley Ledesma leading the way. Ashley is our Child Development Program Director, and she is delighted to share her heritage with Frazer’s children and staff.

Ashley grew up in the Bronx with her Puerto Rican mother who was the first person in their family to graduate from college. While Ashley’s mom pursued her college degrees, Ashley spent time with her grandmother. “I learned Spanish and picked up a lot of my cultural traditions from Abuela.” Ashley’s father is from the Dominican Republic, and although she did not grow up with him, she learned about her Dominican heritage through her family and school friends.

Watching her mother earn a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees was very inspiring to Ashley. Her mother became a teacher and moved up through the system to become a guidance counselor. 

When Ashley started college, she had no intention of following her mother’s path into teaching. She declared biology as her major while she worked her way through with baby-sitting gigs and tutoring. It didn’t take long for Ashley to recognize she felt a connection with the children in her care. “They listen to me; I’m actually teaching them. Here we go,” she thought. “I guess I’m following in my mom’s footsteps!” 

Ashley changed her major and earned a BA in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. “I loved it,” she says of her education. “It helps me understand behaviors so much more and to see the broader impacts of those behaviors on communities.”

Ashley continued her schooling through a dual master’s program in Early Childhood Special and General Education (Birth to Grade 2) at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York. While there, she landed her first position as an educator, teaching preschool special education at Cerebral Palsy of Westchester. From there she moved on to become a pre-k general education teacher in an inclusion classroom alongside a special education teacher. 

But Ashley had ambitions of becoming a director in an early childhood education setting. In her pursuits, however, she was told by a supervisor that “a person like you will never get hired as a director.” That thinly veiled, racially tinged comment only served to stoke the fire within Ashley. She immediately moved on and landed her first position as a director.

Eventually, Ashley landed an opportunity to really hone her leadership skills while overseeing an enrichment program at Pace University. She had full autonomy to develop programs and to hire and train teachers. Based on the positive feedback from her employees, she came to understand that “this was my purpose.” She felt she could have a bigger impact by training teachers to become better at what they do.

Unfortunately for Ashley, Pace University downsized by cutting their enrichment programs. She was not only out of a job, but COVID hit, so Ashley relocated to Georgia to be closer to her immediate family. She gave herself one year in Macon to regroup, then decided she wanted to be closer to Atlanta. She landed a director position with an early childhood education center in Marietta, but she found herself in a harmful environment where she was targeted because of her race. 

Ashley escaped that situation and decided to start her own business. Centering her Hispanic culture, she created Tasty Leia’s, a pop-up food shop with a focus on “Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisine…with a love of culture, tradition, and overall spiritual well-being.” (tastyleias.com) Tasty Leia’s does catering and sells prepared foods at various farmer’s markets.

Over time, Ashley came to realize she missed being with children. So while still operating Tasty Leia’s, Ashley dipped her toes back into the early education field as an assistant director before coming across a job posting for a director position at a nonprofit that serves children with and without disabilities. Frazer Center “sounded like home,” she says. “And it is. I love it here.” She also loves being immersed in nature on the Frazer campus, and she appreciates the diversity among the staff. “I get to be myself, and I get to return to my roots working with children with disabilities. It’s awesome!” 

What’s awesome for Frazer’s staff and children is that Ashley is sharing her cultural traditions during Hispanic Heritage Month. With the help of Kitchen Coordinator Velecia Wright and Kitchen Assistant LaTonya Colzie, Ashley is preparing dishes such as: Pastelón, a traditional Puerto Rican lasagna made with plantains; Harina de Maiz, a Dominican cornmeal porridge; a Puerto Rican roasted pork called Pernil; and Pollo Guisado, a Puerto Rican chicken stew. Ashley includes plant-based meat options as well.

And what celebration of Hispanic heritage would be complete without music? Ashley is visiting Frazer’s classrooms to share the joy of bachata and merengue, two styles of music originating in the Dominican Republic.

Ashley brings joy, positivity, and a wealth of skills to the Frazer team. She enriches our community, and we celebrate her this month and every month.