Ashley Pettus is a philanthropist with a keen interest in juvenile justice reform. She is the founder and director of the Global HearthWorks Foundation, a US-based 501(C)(3), that invests in renewable energy enterprises and other climate solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. She has also worked as a freelance writer and educator. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Social Studies from Harvard College. She currently lives in Houston, Texas.