天美传媒

Having been a media fellow who participated in theatre at 天美传媒, Ashley Baxstrom 鈥�07 considered careers in communication and acting, and even spent a little time in both.

But she also was a religious studies major and 鈥淚鈥檝e always just wanted to do something to help and make things better 鈥� which is such a broad, stupid clich茅, but I couldn鈥檛 not be doing something to make things better.鈥�

So she moved to New York to pursue a master鈥檚 degree in religious studies and reconnected with a woman who had supervised her during her media fellows internship in Rome, where she worked for the World Food Programme. In 2012, the woman asked Baxstrom if she would work 鈥� unpaid 鈥� on a project in the United Nation鈥檚 Secretary General鈥檚 office.聽

The answer was 鈥測es,鈥� and the stint turned into a series of paid contracts that kept Baxstrom 鈥済rowing within that role鈥� for more than four years. During that time, she took a line from a speech given by then-Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and launched a Twitter handle and hashtag, #zerohunger. The concept 鈥渂ecame a movement鈥� and was adopted as one of the U.N.鈥檚 sustainable development goals in 2015.

A year later, after working four years 鈥渙n this very, very broad, big-picture issue 鈥� I was keen to get a little bit more in the weeds,鈥� she said. She had kept close contact with former colleagues in the World Food Programme who knew she was looking, 鈥渁nd they poached me.鈥�

The programme, an arm of the U.N., deploys as many as 5,600 trucks, 30 ships and 100 planes every day to deliver food and assistance to 100 million people in 88 countries. Last October, it was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

Baxstrom worked about seven months in the programme鈥檚 New York office, then moved to the Zimbabwe country office, where she was head of donor relations and communications. She spent time in the field, 鈥渕aking sure people are able to get through the day,鈥� but mostly working to solve systemic problems and create sustainable systems that could be taken over by the country鈥檚 government. Her three-year assignment, during which she contracted typhoid from contaminated water, coincided with a severe humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, which was racked with recurring drought and economic crises.

Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Baxstrom was promoted to work in the programme鈥檚 regional bureau in Bangkok, Thailand. She visited home in Wooster, Ohio, in between assignments, and ended up stuck there several months. That鈥檚 where she learned about the Nobel win.

鈥淚t鈥檚 incredible to feel appreciated for the work that we do,鈥� she said. 鈥溾�� Maybe more people will look at the work that we鈥檙e doing and care about it and want to help.鈥�

She has finally made it to Thailand, where she supports management of a $3 billion portfolio of assistance for 30 million people in 15 countries across the Asia Pacific region. And she is doing something to make things better.

鈥淚 guess I am a bit of a nomad,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 keep shifting careers and paths. And you know, I don鈥檛 necessarily have a plan for five, 10, 20 years from now. But where I go, there I am.鈥�

(Top photo: Baxstrom, third from left, in Zimbabwe with native women. Lower photo: Baxstrom at the 2016 signing of the Paris Climate Agreement.)