Who is Ashley Rhodes-Courter?

Ashley Rhodes-Courter was born in North Carolina in 1985 and entered foster care in 1989. Over the next nine years, she lived in 14 placements before being adopted at age 12 by Phil and Gay Courter of Crystal River, Florida.

Ashley just graduated from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and will walk with her class in May. She was the recipient of Eckerd's Trustee's Scholarship, their most prestigious full-tuition award. She has won several other national and local scholarships. She completed a double major in communications and drama with a double minor in political science and psychology.

At college, Ashley was a residential advisor, student public relation spokesperson, and speech coach. She spent her January term, 2006 in South Africa working with a children's literacy project. In the community, she has a job in marketing for a local television station, works with the Heart Gallery of Pasco & Pinellas and also does on-camera work.

Ashley was the 2004 Youth Advocate of the Year for the North American Council on Adoptable Children and won the Child Welfare League of America Kids to Kids National Service Grand Prize. In 2004, she and her family jointly won the Angels in Adoption from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and nominated by Congresswoman, Ginny Brown-Waite.

On June 1, 2003, the New York Times Magazine published her grand prize winning essay (out of 3000 high school entries) about her adoption day. She expanded her essay into a memoir which has just been published by Simon & Schuster.

In 2007 she was one of 20 college students selected for the USA Today All-USA Academic Team. She also was one of the four GOLDEN BR!CK Award winners for outstanding advocacy by Do Something, and was named one of GLAMOUR Magazine's Top Ten College Women.

Ashley has been featured on Montel Williams, Good Morning America, and other national and local television shows. She has done over 100 speeches, mostly paid, including more than 25 keynotes. She has a passion to tell her story and share hope with other foster children and encourage adoption and permanency.