To the Mountain Listen

Ashley Bales, PhD grew up spending summers at 7,500’ in the mountains of the Sierra National Forest, where four generations of her family benefitted from the early Forest Service’s hundred year land lease special use permit program. The engagement and attention to the natural world that arose from this privilege drove her to complete a PhD in Biological Anthropology, where she conducted paleoanthropological and behavioral fieldwork in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Kenya’s rainforests, and the caves of South Africa and France. Ashley now teaches in Pratt’s Math and Science department. Current research centers on transdisciplinary and embodied learning pedagogies, bridging the fields of Biological Anthropology, Anatomy, Sustainability, Evolutionary Biology, and Design. She also holds a Masters in Creative Writing and maintains a creative practice rooted in writing, photography, and movement.