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ABOUT

Ashlea Graves Turner owns Gavel In®, LLC, a legislative services firm based in Houston, TX. A well-rounded professional with 14 years of combined experience, Ashlea has worked at all three levels of government. She has extensive experience working with elected officials, corporate and community stakeholders to achieve policy goals.

Most recently, Ashlea was the Texas State Director for Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign, overseeing 200 employees, 9 departments, 19 field offices and all campaign activity statewide.

Her career began during the 80th Texas Legislative Session as a policy adviser to State Senator Rodney Ellis. In 2007, she moved from Austin to Washington, D.C. to join U.S. Congressman Al Green’s policy team on Capitol Hill. After championing the passage of a $570 Million amendment for Hurricane Ike recovery, Ashlea joined Bill White’s gubernatorial campaign with regional and statewide responsibilities.

Ashlea’s lobbying experience spans over 10 years, fighting for Houston’s business community and the state’s largest school district. In 2011, Ashlea joined the advocacy team for the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP), Houston’s regional chamber of commerce. Her time at GHP was well-spent managing healthcare policy, D.C. fly-ins for Houston’s CEOs and a grassroots movement statewide to pass a $2 Billion investment in better water infrastructure.

Ashlea led the largest school district’s government relations team for almost six years. As the Chief Governmental Relations and Strategy Officer for the Houston Independent School District (HISD), Ashlea and her legislative team brought back over $1 Billion in state and federal funds. The bulk of these dollars are savings towards recapture, or Robin Hood, payments to the state. Ashlea has passed critical legislation in support of public education, including bills related to dual credit for high school students interested in college-level coursework.

Ashlea is a graduate of Stanford University. She received her executive education from Harvard and Yale Universities. Ashlea values public service and volunteerism as a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum.

She is a recipient of the Houston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award and the 40 Under 40 Award.