Today's show is sure to inspire! Ashley Mays, a dynamic guest with a compelling story, walks us through her journey from her college roots at the University of Virginia (UVA) to her impactful career in economic development and real estate. She uncovers her experiences at UVA, including her venture to Valencia for studying abroad, navigating all grounds recruiting, and the beginning of her career at Rolls Royce.
Fueling our conversation further, Ashley delves into her transition to the economic development field during the real estate boom in 2003. She passionately advocates for equitable development and illuminates the barriers black businesses face in seizing opportunities. Drawing from her experiences in real estate, from midtown Manhattan to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, she unveils sobering truths about racial disparities in the industry. Her insights into the lack of color in these spaces are both revealing and inspiring.
Finally, we steer the conversation towards the power of representation in business structures. Ashley emphasizes that simply having a seat at the table can make a world of difference in bridging the inequity gap. Her plans to assemble a syndicate of black and brown folks to invest in mid-sized projects are nothing short of ambitious and revolutionary. As a board member of the University of Virginia White Ruffin Byron Center of Real Estate, she is relentlessly working towards ensuring access to resources for students, making a profound impact. This episode is a treasure trove of invaluable insights, compelling ideas, and a testament to Ashley May's incredible journey. Prepare yourself for an enlightening conversation.
Today's show is sure to inspire! Ashley Mays, a dynamic guest with a compelling story, walks us through her journey from her college roots at the University of Virginia (UVA) to her impactful career in economic development and real estate. She uncovers her experiences at UVA, including her venture to Valencia for studying abroad, navigating all grounds recruiting, and the beginning of her career at Rolls Royce.
Fueling our conversation further, Ashley delves into her transition to the economic development field during the real estate boom in 2003. She passionately advocates for equitable development and illuminates the barriers black businesses face in seizing opportunities. Drawing from her experiences in real estate, from midtown Manhattan to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, she unveils sobering truths about racial disparities in the industry. Her insights into the lack of color in these spaces are both revealing and inspiring.
Finally, we steer the conversation towards the power of representation in business structures. Ashley emphasizes that simply having a seat at the table can make a world of difference in bridging the inequity gap. Her plans to assemble a syndicate of black and brown folks to invest in mid-sized projects are nothing short of ambitious and revolutionary. As a board member of the University of Virginia White Ruffin Byron Center of Real Estate, she is relentlessly working towards ensuring access to resources for students, making a profound impact. This episode is a treasure trove of invaluable insights, compelling ideas, and a testament to Ashley May's incredible journey. Prepare yourself for an enlightening conversation.
promote more. Hey, you no, look who's where. J Anthony, new York City, and Max, my co-host, is on here. What's up, max?
Speaker 2:What's up? We're upcoming T Live season four, episode second half. Let's see what it's going to be, but it's good to see everybody happy with that.
Speaker 1:We have a special guest on today. Ashley Mays has served as Chief of Place in real estate at Newark Alliance, where she is responsible for catalyzing investment development opportunities in Newark. She previously she brings nearly 20 years of experience in commercial real estate. Prior to Newark Alliance was a senior vice president and head of policing in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and before that was with the Thurst Organization and SL Green Realty Corporation. Is that right? That's right, all right. So welcome Ashley to the podcast.
Speaker 2:What a recipe. I have some popcorn. I have to read it.
Speaker 3:You can put it in the back Some people you gotta read it Some people you gotta read it.
Speaker 1:Some people, you can just go on the top of the bag.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so no, I know, I have to deliver now.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you jumping on here. Thanks for having me. So where should we start? Where are you from?
Speaker 3:I'm from New Jersey, not far, born and raised Jersey girl and back in New Jersey. Most of my career has been in New York, but I'm really happy to be back in Jersey, living in Jersey, but yeah.
Speaker 1:That's Jersey, sure does. So what made you come down to UBA? Seems like you passed a lot of good schools coming down the road to University of Virginia.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know a couple things. One I wanted to get away from home, Like most kids just want experience of the new. But I wanted to stay drivable distance and I was a practical kid still I'm pretty practical and so I wanted to focus on public schools. But University of California was out, not drivable.
Speaker 3:Michigan, whether or not, no, North Carolina not so drivable in one shot to Dr Jersey. So UBA from a practical standpoint was like, well, this is actually probably from a geographic point of view somewhere I should look. And then actually one of my sister's best friends from high school went to UBA and he was smart and I'm like, well, steve, steve, I'm there, I can't go wrong. So it became on top of my list pretty quickly and then I figured I would probably do a couple of New York schools, columbia, that corner, and then Rutgers. Rutgers and Jersey is a great state school, so that was kind of my field of those.
Speaker 1:What took us over the top?
Speaker 3:It was that quintessential campus vibe.
Speaker 1:Did you go to have her spring fling? Because that's what people tell you.
Speaker 3:I did, that's what.
Speaker 1:I'm doing there.
Speaker 3:Frankly, I did early acceptance back in the day when that was a thing.
Speaker 2:So at that point I was like, yeah, but I did the spring fling thing.
Speaker 3:I'd known about it before, and so I knew that the black community was strong, and so it was just a good thing, good thing.
Speaker 1:Well, we're happy that you became a wahoo. Yes, yes. So how was your experience in totality? Was it any bit of a culture shock at all with showing up on campus and just being in that environment?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, From a culture shock point of view, no, I do feel like there were some things early on that really helped the transition, though Just being away from home and not going Like I didn't play a sport so I didn't have going into it like a crew. So peer advisor program at the Office of African-American Affairs is really important for me and just making sure that I had just felt like I'd just scaffolded with support, but otherwise it was. You know, there's a lot of UVA along and folks in Jersey, so I kind of quickly realized that I knew some people from around. I think there were three other people from my high school in that year. That wasn't a CIA, that was a CIA.
Speaker 2:We always focused with real estate going in because there wasn't a big real estate program in the years. We're not upset with it, but wish they had a big one. I know they would go on and out, but what was like that I mean a focus when we started?
Speaker 3:No, not at all. I didn't find real estate until after I graduated. I did not touch real estate at all. I did not mix prints. At UVA, I was on a marketing track and I thought I wanted to do brand management. I knew that advertising probably wasn't my thing. I wanted a more focus on control of the business rather than just focus on advertising. But yeah, I thought I was on a marketing track and I was in McIntyre. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:When you first showed up, did you say I was going to do marketing and I'm going McIntyre, or that kind of transition?
Speaker 3:I knew going in that I wanted to apply for the ComSchool.
Speaker 1:They sold us at the football standpoint. They sold us on the ComSchool. They really realized that we were not able to do it because it was in the middle of practice. Most of the classes were in practice. You could do it.
Speaker 2:They said that practice is optional, but so it's just starting.
Speaker 1:They were like no, it's okay, Do whatever you want to do.
Speaker 2:We can't tell you not to go to class.
Speaker 1:The ComSchool is a good recruiting tool. They use it. I wanted to see those numbers from a football standpoint. How many people are coming because they want to get into the ComSchool and how many people would actually put into that?
Speaker 2:I know one person, paul Simmons, and who's the other one, fuller, but the other two people. I know that went to the ComSchool.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Rodney Barber. He just made it into the football thing and he was a ComSchool guy. He was that's dope, Okay. So you said you knew you were going to do that. How was your ComSchool experience in general in McIntyre?
Speaker 3:ComSchool was great. It was super intense and I was one of the but frankly backing up, going in for everyone listening. You know that you apply to the ComSchool in your second year, so it's an upper-class program, and so the first two years you're taking prerequisites, and I also minored in Spanish, so my studies were really dope. I saw the prerequisites in Spanish in the first couple of years.
Speaker 3:And some of those prerequisite courses really kicked my butt. A lot of the content just didn't come naturally. Accounting was hard for me, computer science was hard for me, so it was not easy. But then once I got in, then it was kind of like okay, I'm here. I had to kind of overcome a little bit of that insecurity, feeling like I struggled a little bit at the beginning with some of my pre-rex, but it was really strong on leadership stuff and involvement. So getting over that and then getting in, I really did feel like everyone was behind me. So then I was able to kind of shed some of that heaviness I felt at the beginning. How was the?
Speaker 1:diversity in the ComSchool at your time, right now.
Speaker 3:Oh terrible.
Speaker 1:Terrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's still too hard.
Speaker 1:Did it at least meet the same percentage as the university? Yeah, I'm surprised you're at this question.
Speaker 3:I don't know, but I would say it's less. You know, it's something that I talk about. We'll talk about this in short, a little bit, but it's something I talk about not necessarily with respect to McIntyre, but I am really focused in the work at the Center for Real Estate and the Build Environment on addressing kind of focus on diversity and recruiting folks into the world of real estate, where there also is obviously a representation problem that is being addressed. But you know it, just keeping the conversation on top of clients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big conversation. We're definitely going to die of that, yeah. For sure, so what were some of the other leadership things you did while you were at the University of?
Speaker 3:Virginia Black Commerce Student Network. I was involved in different capacities and different leadership roles as President one year. Again, I was really interested in Spanish and working abroad, I really wanted to incorporate that into my career so I immersed myself into, like student, like Black American student organizations. There was one called Simone Bolivar and like I've got to I think it's probably so, I'm not sure, but in case I got to, you know, speak Spanish and kind of cultural stuff, dancing, and you know that was also like you know kind of just people and just widened my experience. Spanish was a great way for me to just like not be so comfortable, focused and like I really wanted a just a real far reaching experience. And you know, some folks really just like really super focused on their business stuff and you know I am into it too, but it was important for me to kind of see more of the campus.
Speaker 1:I think that's one of the things I regret it and I usually talk about this as the fact of like in the football circle, like you just only see a football guy, everybody's in psych, psych, social and you know what I'm saying you don't really get that network experience like that. So definitely one of the things. I definitely regret it from that experience. Do you have any regrets from your time at UVA?
Speaker 3:I never took an art history class and that caused me.
Speaker 2:You could always go back. You know online classes. That's a big thing.
Speaker 3:That's one of the things I think about. But no, I did study abroad. I did that between my first and second year. I went to Valencia and then I said I knew I wanted to do a college school. I knew that was going to be difficult to pull a semester study abroad experience off and what I wanted some time there. And I knew that the college school did some kind of program was over when I break. But so I did a summer in Valencia and I know they're celebrating, I think, 30 years of that program this year. Unfortunately I can't explain that trip to Valencia this year, but that was a super like pivotal experience for me, that I studied abroad and really just opened just like open up the door for me to just want to further explore the world.
Speaker 1:Definitely not going to understand that. So, post graduation, what does that experience look like for you? You sit in there with like 20,000 job opportunities, or what does it look like from your perspective?
Speaker 3:So I did the whole all grounds recruiting thing. It was super intense and because I was a marketing track and I was on that international, like super international focus, I one job offer that was a great one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you won.
Speaker 3:And that was for Rolls Royce. They had a rotational program and that was the first year that they were recruited on grounds and they and it's not for their cars, but their jet engines- it's actually for motors, I don't know if it's still BMW, but at the time it was under BMW, so we were in the market for a Learjet or something. I don't do that one.
Speaker 2:I don't do that. One Got your money in.
Speaker 1:If Chase gave this company sold, I might be in the market then but until then I'll stick to the cars.
Speaker 3:It's a few more years. So you were training that as a marketing job, right yeah, I was in different departments, like contracts and then sales. There was a finance rotation and then you would land in the department that was the best fit and go from there. What department did you go in? I went to the Latin American commercial airlines and it was the obvious, perfect, famous dream job, so my clients were like Mexicana and TAM and Mexico and that's a travel lot.
Speaker 3:So I was based in Northern Virginia and, yeah, it was an amazing first experience, first job.
Speaker 1:When did you get into this real estate?
Speaker 3:So it was probably a year and a half into that job at Rolls Royce and that was 2003. We were in the midst of a real estate boom on UpSwing and Tech Boom.
Speaker 3:I was just reading a lot about real estate and I liked my time at Rolls Royce, but it was up and down in terms of the work. There was a lot of down time, lots of time, just me sitting in a cubicle, and I was just much of the time I was not inspired, and although I was just really highly supported and encouraged I had peers that I worked with that were great I just knew that there was something else for me and so I took a leap of faith. I quit that job. I asked my parents if I could move back to Montclair and move in with them, and somehow they agreed. And I decided I was going to just embark on this journey and took like finding a job at Mill State and so Mabel's coming from, like just reading things up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, nothing. I knew absolutely nothing, and it was just. It was hard for me to remember, and after it was about six months, I landed my first job at SL Green as at least an associate, and so that was where I just started.
Speaker 2:So where are you at now? Explain, what do you do now with real estate? And I got a couple questions. I made you with something better.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I actually recently had a transition in my career. So the first, I would say about 16 years or so, I was really focused or maybe even more than that, focused on commercial office and retail. We think that was really what my career was built. However, I really started to become interested in how real estate is a kind of a critical component of the strategy to support black and brown entrepreneurs, economic development and how real estate can, the marriage of real estate and economic development and closing the racial wealth gap through ownership and entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3:So I got me toes wet in that at the Brooklyn Navy Yard that that gig. I ran leasing to the yard and also helped reimagine what their strategy was around supporting MWBEs and their folks on equity. And then now what I do at the Newark Alliance is yet an even deeper role in economic development, where I'm looking at commercial quarters and how this wraparound approach of development placemaking, investment into small businesses, engagement with corporate and anger institutions and, obviously, municipal government like how we can revitalize commercial quarters equitably while also giving opportunity for wealth creation to local Newarkers and underrepresented folks.
Speaker 1:Ok, so don't I wonder before you jump in what is equitable, yeah. So from that standpoint, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think of equitable in the context of what's going on in Newark. I think about the fact that Newarkers often have been left out of the conversation when it comes to development and there have been different waves of development in Newark's past and we're in another boom that's really taking off right now. So I think about what are the opportunities for Newarkers just to really have a seat at the table with ownership but respect, to kind of centering local entrepreneurship yeah.
Speaker 1:So is it more so because I know where you could talk to me, where I'm from or whatever. A lot of the conversation is around getting people contracts when they have these large development jobs like the smaller entrepreneurs and things of that nature the guy that he can do with bonds, services, can he do something over here? So they're trying to hit this percentage of spend for the actual project. So that's what we kind of consider to be equitable, but we've never talked about it from the ownership side of things. In that perspective, I'm seeing equity on that side.
Speaker 1:So that's an interesting conversation to me. Where did you first kind of see inequities in real estate and started to build this passion, wanted to try to fix these gaps.
Speaker 3:So inequities in real estate. Number one I didn't really think about it in the context of my commercial leasing work, but one of the things I think when you're just moving around as a black person, a person of color, particularly black women- and some of these spaces in midtown Manhattan. When I'm just like walking around and showing space in my buildings like where are the people of color? Like in the elevator where is? Everybody. How come the people who I'm renting space to are like?
Speaker 2:where are the women owned businesses?
Speaker 3:Where are the black women's businesses? So starting to think about that and thinking about, well, how come there's people not in these spaces? And we all know the power of proximity and even just the power of just renting space in a building and all of the collaboration that comes and the opportunity that can come by just being in the right space. We talked a lot about that at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and how, how collaboration among the businesses at the Yard was something that really helped help businesses forward. We had a statistic where 71 percent of businesses at the Navy Yard collaborated with each other.
Speaker 3:And so thinking about, ok, well, there's, there's just people, just not in the space. So that was kind of one thing that just started, just started thinking about and thinking about who's owning the companies, who's holding the real estate and investing in these projects, just trying to, you know, start to think through those questions. But also my time at the Yard started when I started to dig into this stuff, realizing that, you know, obviously ownership home ownership and real estate ownership, personal estate ownership for small businesses is often the way for that people are building wealth and it's also a way that a lot of entrepreneurs are able to remain stable in their businesses and avoid getting displaced from you know, from development.
Speaker 1:So what have you seen, as there's been some of the issues. That is the reasons why you don't see these black businesses with the access to these opportunities.
Speaker 3:It's the age of the you know topic that we hear everywhere. It's, you know, it's access to access to capital. It's, you know, people who don't have the network of wealthy friends or family. They might not have even come from a home that had that, where they grew up with a family that owned their home in the first place. So, like all of this kind of builds, to the fact that business owners that are not, you know, having a stake in the buildings where, where they're setting up shop and in Newark the dynamic is even trickier.
Speaker 3:Where you think of a city like Newark and from the outside, looking in, you know, maybe it's perception is that it's sleepy or that there's still a lot of development that's going to happen, which you know, in some respects is true. But you know, the friends are strong, particularly in certain commercial quarters. Retail friends and office friends are strong. And so landlords, who often have held these properties for ages and have got no basis in the building, they often will just sit on spaces and not even rent them because it's just not worth it If they don't want to invest in the TI or the other aspects.
Speaker 1:That's very interesting. I've never actually really thought about it from that perspective. Like there's not very many black owned businesses or color that disadvantage any type of disadvantage on the road, like that I see in commercial real estate spaces with prime real estate opportunity. You know what I'm saying. I never even heard that conversation, honestly, as far as them trying to take steps to get people into those spaces. Just see an empty building. You see like two or three companies in there and that's it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's some really interesting models that were in Newark interested in exploring with respect to how how we can get access into ownership of some bigger projects for just regular folks and kind of a communal kind of ownership or kind of a re model.
Speaker 2:So for that, do you feel that's something.
Speaker 2:That's like on a government level, like they need to step in and be like, hey, these are the steps we need to take.
Speaker 2:Kind of kind of like, you know, when your enemies like a lot of bigger cities, like, hey, you got to be 60% of any city project, asked me, you know, I know what you mean. So you're a swan. Do you feel for, like, doing these reeds? Or even the big thing now is, you know, before the 1000 low income housing, a lot of the people are shifting to that because you can get the government money to subsidize what you know, to create the equity that you need to reach, you know, because interest rates are so high for our money, so expensive, the slow, affordable compounds on the rise because the government subsidies make it work. So do you feel something the government to step in and be like, hey, you know well, most of these people are, you know, minorities are well disadvantaged people living here. Is there a way to incorporate them in the ownership of the property? What do you feel is a corporate thing, like, hey, we as a corporation, this investment firm, we should be looking to also have the community of partners.
Speaker 3:Well, in Newark we are super collaborative and we think that is everyone's role, we think that it's the city's role that there's a space for local you know, corporate anchor institutions and there's certainly a philanthropic community that's interested in supporting these types of projects. So, yeah, I think it's comfortable to create.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, Are there any initiatives that you guys have kind of like been discussing that you could bring up?
Speaker 3:I wish that I could at this moment. All right.
Speaker 2:We won't spill the tea yet.
Speaker 3:If we did this in, you know, maybe two months or months, I'd be in a position to share, but we are thinking through all of these things with respect to, yeah, whether it's the communal ownership, whether it's city or philanthropic.
Speaker 1:I do like that, like crowd sharing. Invest here, stop type of style. Yes, Is that even currently existing anywhere in real estate space?
Speaker 3:So there's a gentleman named Lingir Robinson who is a professor at Rutgers, but he also has a company called Chicago Trend where they invest in shopping centers in predominantly black communities around the country as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization, while centering black and brown entrepreneurship for occupying the spaces there, and I think that is a really interesting model. And he crowd sources. So he's like they recently went to contract for property in Baltimore and crowd sourcing a chunk for investment.
Speaker 1:So that's awesome. So that should be more credible than for sure. Yes, so I mean these major assets. We all know where they were there.
Speaker 3:If you just leave a slice like. I am just so interested in how we can just even how can we just leave a slice for just regular folks, right, and and the long term impact that could have for families is just to be remarkable. So I know that there are some some, a lot of people interested in how we can figure that out.
Speaker 1:No that's pretty solid. So how has your experience been in a real estate space being a woman of color?
Speaker 3:You know it's, it's challenging, you know I feel like it's.
Speaker 3:I'm feeling it frankly more now, I think, as I'm more senior in my career than I was at the beginning, because you know, when you're young, everyone's young and you know you kind of just get lumped into the same group but I continuously, you know, with other and you know would find it difficult with some folks, and this is not across the board, but with some folks trying to, you know, make those connections with brokers or that kind of thing, just very predominantly white, male, and I would feel a bit out of place and but over time really just like building my confidence and, you know, just power through. But I definitely have had like that inflow of feeling like, is this the right space for me? And, you know, question whether or not it's kind of, is this all worth it? And you know, now, working in the economic development space where it's much more diverse, it's, you know it's refreshing, you know, frankly, to be working with predominantly women, lots of women of color. It's just, it's a fun right, that public speed.
Speaker 1:I think it's always so important to have like representation at these, like old boys' clubs, business structures, you know what I'm saying. Like we have a couple people in the tub together, like we might have like a whole board full of you know white male individuals, and then you have one black lady who's in there trying to make change, trying to get job opportunities, trying to get like RFPs in front of you know minority contractors, and that stuff means so much to those businesses that get those opportunities because for the most part it's the education standpoint where you don't even know where to look, you know where to go, you don't know where the opportunity is. You know what I'm saying. So somebody being at that table and saying, hey, this is coming across the table, let's put it over here. I think that's so important. So you know the fact that you are in those positions of being able to see the inequity and because you know, most of the time these people, they can't see the inequity, they're just like.
Speaker 2:I think that's a big thing you mentioned, especially if you start to increasingly dwell it out and getting into some of these environmentized people.
Speaker 2:It's not that they don't necessarily want to hire them, it's you go with what you're comfortable with and you know they've been around the older they have a group of people that they work with that just happen to always look like them. So when you can bring somebody that looks like us in, who has a group that looks like us, it's not that they're opposed to working with them. It's like they don't use someone to look. And especially on a lot of these larger deals, I mean it's just you can't take a chance on, you know, behind the end of a deal for somebody that would work with an agent. So having people that do have that network of you know minority businesses, I think it's a bigger part. More so, a lot of people just think that they just can't get in there. It smells just. You know. Having people on the board that represent our stat can vouch for us is one of the bigger parts really yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So are you doing any investing yourself Like personal investing?
Speaker 3:So I at the moment no, and I need to get back in the game. I had some personal investments that I sold, and I'm looking for partners.
Speaker 2:Looking for partners. That's the name of the game Covid Dollars Okay.
Speaker 3:You and your shit out of town partners.
Speaker 2:Okay, we'll talk later. We'll talk later. You know, always, always, we'll definitely chase those. I'm always over here pitching middle best.
Speaker 1:So have you been looking at bigger things, because obviously you've worked on a larger, bigger project things. Do you find that it's hard to live in smaller opportunities?
Speaker 3:No, like. So I'm just I think that it would just be so fun to kind of pull together kind of a syndicate of you know black and brown folks, women, kind of going in on something that's kind of like a mid-sized type of project. You know I love you know smaller projects. I've owned like a brownstone and Harlem and loved that. That was the end, lived there and loved that kind of thing. But I just think that it's this is like the time to kind of just make some more votes, make something a way to get the big team?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what advice would you give to someone who is, let's say, in at UVA currently looking to get into real estate maybe a little bit on the edge. A little bit on the edge, I think they may not fit into that group type situation. What kind of advice would you give? Looking back on your career? Yeah, how are you going to maneuver?
Speaker 3:Well, at UVA, number one is to follow the Center for Real Estate and the Bill and the Pocket. There you go. That's like, say that again, if we, if that existed while we were there, it just would have been a game changer. So that's number one. I happen to be the chair of the student support subcommittee and Chase is on that team as well, and you know we are here to connect with students. I mean, this is, this is what we're here for, you know. So number one that.
Speaker 3:But number two is, and which I wish I had taken this advice is don't forget the UVA network as you kind of advance your career, because there were several years where I was just out of the loop from UVA. I just kind of thought that I was just doing this by myself and I was just like not forgetting that there was a network of folks who were cheering for me, want you know, invested in my success. So I think I could have had more mentors earlier on if I had just remembered UVA network, the mentorship is crazy and the network that UVA creates.
Speaker 1:I didn't really. Before I even got on the board, I didn't know that there was this like large players in the commercial real estate space, which is crazy Me, either Me either.
Speaker 3:I did. I really did. Just I really did not appreciate how many folks were in real estate and so, yeah, so that will change as the center grows, but I'm excited that you know real estate is really going to be a kind of a topic of front and center on the grounds.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the center a little bit From your role as the head of the VP. Is VP Student Success on the board.
Speaker 3:Vice chair or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, vice chair she's on the top two, our board's very big right. You know what I'm saying, so above me. So what are kind of the initiatives that we're working on?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one is trying to get more connectivity between the student groups and the board. There's a view rack and Darden real estate club as kind of the really the hallmark organizations undergrad and graduate students. So building more bridges with those groups and more collaboration. So that's, like you know, that's probably number one importance and that's, I think, the right mechanism for the board to kind of keep years on the ground of what's like topic of topic of concern for students. Were you a part?
Speaker 1:of any of those. Yeah, I think that's what I'm looking for. No, no again. I just really say it wasn't on my radar.
Speaker 3:So no.
Speaker 1:You got the same experience as us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah and no idea, we wish so. Yeah, nice to have that group around.
Speaker 1:So wait for my invite from Chase to be on board with us and we'll talk later. So he talks to the right person then. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, as you know, when some slots open up, we're actually just talking about that in an executive meeting. So I think we'll be learning more about that. You want to present that comment.
Speaker 3:Chase, so again more resources for industry, industry resources to student hands, like membership to ULI or crew, which is a women's network organization, so to get folks embedded into larger industry no associations early on and helping to carry tours and site visits and that kind of thing. I think is really important to bring the work to life and just touch and feel projects and kind of learn in place.
Speaker 1:So last question is there how would you position your? How would you say, is best way to position yourself in the real estate space? If that's where you want to be, you think it's heavier networking. You think it's more so understanding the details of the actual transactions, like how do you position yourself to be successful in this field if you're a car student? It's networking.
Speaker 3:You'll learn what you need to learn from your work. Whenever discipline you're interested in, you're going to be taught about the tools from that company. But it's getting the foot in the door and using the network and I think that that's the power of the center and kind of formalizing the real estate network that we have and leveraging these actions Awesome.
Speaker 2:One more question to me If you could like check just kind of what would be, you know that would be great. What would be your next project? Would be like mixed use development apartments for commercial space, straight commercial, straight residential. Or would you even do kind of big companies doing like single families in like a Charlotte area type and you know a bunch of single?
Speaker 3:families running around? Oh, this is a hard question. I'll answer it by saying this Recently in Newark I went to a project called Maker Hoods which is a combination of residential and like manufacturing space and it's kind of a mission driven project where the developer kind of give a really attractive package deal to an entrepreneur to kind of live and work and have their studio space there, and I think that's super powerful. Like the Brooklyn ABR would never have residential. But I feel like if, like a project like the Yard had residential that was affordable for entrepreneurs, it would just be like really, really powerful, Because lots of artists and you know makers are paying two rents, you know, and so to think about how a business could be catalyzed by support early on, I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:I see a dope situation in DC where this one lady she owns a decent piece of land and her business is on there. But she opened up the rest of the piece of land, she put like sugar-containing little setups in there and she gives minority-owned businesses free office fees to it. So yeah, it's on her land. I guess it brings traffic to her space as well. Yeah yeah, so it's a win-win in that situation. So I thought that was really cool what she was doing from that perspective. So where do people reach you at?
Speaker 3:Link. I'm on LinkedIn, Ashley Mays and LinkedIn is the best thing for me.
Speaker 1:You open for mentors. Yes, is your inbox open for mentors Always?
Speaker 3:I didn't even talk about mentorship, but mentorship was both on the receiving end and giving, and a big part of my time at UVA, and after that as well, so guess, please, perfect, got a lot to talk about Great.
Speaker 1:Oh man, so the final thing we do before we close is call it. It's rapid-fire questions, so it's like 10 questions. Is this or that? You choose what you prefer. Tell me about this. It's on the cuff. It's on the cuff right here. All right, so it was true. It was true. So hotels or air babies?
Speaker 3:Oh, right now I'm feeling hotels.
Speaker 1:All right listening to books or reading books.
Speaker 3:Oh listening, I have two kids, two young kids.
Speaker 1:It's like I guess all of us, my best friend, I'll say go to the movies or Netflix, all right cable or stream, stream IG stories or IG posts Stories. Watch the movies or read the news. Oh no, watch the news or read the news.
Speaker 3:Read the news.
Speaker 1:Read the news. Would you rather start a podcast or write a book? I'd ask Apple or Android. Apple Detroit Pizza and New York Pizza.
Speaker 3:New.
Speaker 1:York. All right, and if you were moving, would you hire a moving company or would you get your friends to help you? I hear Bus go. It's on top of that. That is it. We are out Appreciate the action, thanks.