In everything she does, Ashlei Spivey celebrates Blackness, builds power and advocates for community

By Leo Adam Biga

Ashlei Spivey advocates for diversity and inclusion in her community.

Omaha native Ashlei Spivey celebrates Blackness and combats anti-Blackness as a community-first social entrepreneur and philanthropic executive. Her advocacy around diversity, equity, and inclusion furthers the legacy of her late mother, Lisa Spivey.

“It really is in honor of my mom,” the proud daughter said. She admires how her parent managed raising her and her younger sister, plus earning two college degrees, all while working full-time. “She never missed a school sporting event (Ashlei starred in volleyball) and was anything and everything else I needed.”

“She’s the first person who taught me what diversity, equity and inclusion is. She talked about what it was like to be one of only two Black women in the corporate world she navigated and the responsibility she felt to the community. She really planted those seeds for me to understand what that looks like. Whatever my impact is is all because of her – the energy she exuded and how she walked in line with what she planted.” 

Like her mother before her, Spivey often finds herself ”the first and the only Black woman in the room” in certain career spaces she traverses. “So I’m navigating the same things. It’s a tough space to navigate. It’s nuanced.” Spivey draws on her mother’s experience to inform that journey.

“What she taught me, what we talked about, what she left with me was the idea of how can I work to change things at a system level and make it a better cultural experience for Black folks.”

Camille Metoyer Moten worked with Lisa Spivey. The two became close friends and she sees the same qualities in the daughter that the mother exhibited. “She is just like her mom – brilliant, compassionate, clever and wise. I love that Lisa’s legacy lives on in her daughters and that Ashlei is working to change the world because of what her mom instilled in her.”

Pressure comes with being an outlier and disruptor. 

“I sometimes struggle standing in my power and in my truth,” Spivey acknowledges. A recent fellowship she did with the Association of Black Philanthropy Executives (ABPE) bolstered her self-empowerment. 

“It works with Black folks in the philanthropic sector to do just what some of the other movements I’m involved do – to build networks, to provide support and learning. Through that group I’ve really been able to lean into my power more through my curated friends who are my village. I’m able to get poured into when they lift me up.”

Much of her work seeks to dismantle the notion that Black people operate from a deficit and need fixing. “We have to keep decolonizing our minds of things we were taught and conditioned to believe,” she said. “I continue to push my thinking and approach to be better for my community and myself. I continue to try to engage authentically in this work and be a lifelong learner. I am always asking what can I learn, what can I do, what am I missing.”

In recognition of her efforts the Urban League of Nebraska presented her its’ Service Award, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce named her a Changemaker and the Midlands Business Journal included her in its 40 Under 40 honor roll. Forbes Magazine brought national attention to a safe, affirming, empowering community space she created: I Be Black Girl (IBBG).

Spivey believes in “Black Girl Magic.” She describes it this way: “Being a Black woman is complex, beautiful, powerful, challenging, fluid, evolving and rich. See, before I am a woman, I am Black. My Blackness and my womanhood intersect. There are narratives set for me and narratives I am able to build. I have learned through family, friends, community, mentors, peers, my historically Black college family (Jackson State) and life experiences that there is nothing like a Black Woman. I have learned that I don’t have to accept the narratives given to me.”

Another inspirational figure in her life is Shelley Henderson, a national consultant for racial equity in education. “She’s awesome,” Spivey said of her accomplished “friend and mentor.” Spivey told Forbes the success of IBBG is rooted in the strong Sisterhood around her. She recommends others find theirs.

“I know this would not be successful without amazing Black women that have believed in the collective and poured into it and me.”

-Ashlei Spivey

“I know this would not be successful without amazing Black women that have believed in the collective and poured into it and me. I want other women to recognize their power and influence. Everyone has something they can leverage to create a positive impact on the spaces they occupy, whether that’s within their school, neighborhood or organization. So decide what you want to impact. Trust your gut and surround yourself with amazing, dope people that can add value to the work.”

Following her own purpose, she was a community organizer in workforce development and educational access in Dallas, Texas. She didn’t plan moving back to Omaha, but her mother’s death in 2011 changed all that. She returned to her hometown and became guardian to her younger sister.  

No longer up for the front lines of direct social service work, she moved to organizational development in nonprofits, where her work to mitigate anti-Blackness began in earnest.

“Just because a nonprofit has a social mission does not mean they are exempt from having racist policies and practices. So I started to combine what I saw and believed in in terms of justice frameworks to organizational capacity and development.”

By the time the first Black Lives Matter emerged in 2014, she was immersed in the work. She found her familiarity with Omaha, along with its small town-big city nature, amenable to making a difference. “I wanted to engage in hard conversations around racial justice and equity and I was able to do it more accessibly here because of our size and because of my network. That was really a plus when I thought about staying and making an impact here. It’s the smallest biggest place you will go. You’re one degree of separation between people. I think that is a strength we don’t leverage enough.”

At first, she brought the value-add of diversity-equity-inclusion training into spaces without charging for it “Black women don’t get compensated for their intellectual capital or work,” she said, “and I was tired of doing this heavy lift for free. People want my services, my expertise and my perspective, then I need to be paid for it. That’s why five years ago I started my consulting brand, Ay Spivey.”

She used to lead workshops on things like white privilege but found clients would use those sessions to let themselves off the hook from “doing the real work.” “Now,” she said, “I get clients to think about the issues from all levels of their organization’s culture and how it’s expressed in service delivery to customers and community. I make sure anything I do has a strategic component embedded from an organizational development perspective so that you can see true transformation – versus a checked- box.” 

Her consulting is a side gig to her full-time work in philanthropy. She was a Peter Kiewit Foundation program officer until early this year, when she left to take a similar post with a national private foundation focused on education and entrepreneurship. 

Operating in the philanthropic arena is a strategic decision for her. “I have centered my work on power-building. Power, like access to resources, the ability to influence, make your own decisions, allows people to do what they need to do to chart their own course. Working in the philanthropic sector I’m able to influence, to understand, and hopefully push dollars to some projects that build and support community-led initiatives.” 

Her professional development is growing as a 2020 Black to the Future Public Policy institute fellow. She and Omaha activist Dominique Morgan are among the cohort of fellows selected from hundreds of applicants nationwide. 

“I’m excited to be learning from national thought leaders and peers to better understand the political landscape in order to build Black political power. We’re learning to build our capacity and network in thinking about how we can affect change in our local communities.” 

“As a community we need to reflect on how we can get people into different networks to leverage their strengths and their passions to get them to a sense of belongingness,”

-Ashlei Spivey

At a 2019 Empowerment Network panel of young Black professionals she advocated pathways to embrace and activate people. “As a community we need to reflect on how we can get people into different networks to leverage their strengths and their passions to get them to a sense of belongingness,” she said. 

The empowering spaces she’s helped create came from her and others feeling the need to glory in their shared Blackness. “When you’re constantly fighting in a movement to change systems for folks to recognize your humanity, you get tired,” she said. Thus, I Be Black Girl Girl is designed to encourage, celebrate, energize and support those identifying as Black girls or women.

“I really do feel Black women are the moral compass of society and at the helm of every major social movement. I Be Black Girl says we see you Black women and girls and we invest in you. We have a philanthropic arm and a space that looks at economic liberation.” 

Art therapist Yasmin Tucker credits the support of Spivey and IBBG as ”the reason I was brave and bold enough to open my private practice – Creative Counseling and Studio,” she said. “They validated and legitimized my business in the Omaha community. Ashlei has an elevated energy about her. I know when I am in her circle, I can do anything. She is courageous and unapologetically herself. She carves a path for the rest of us out here building and growing new ideas.”

Spivey has made sure to make IBBG as inclusive as her own personal circle. “We’re a space for affirming Black women and girls in all the different narratives within that identity. My best friend is a trans Black woman – Dominique Morgan. She is so amazing. She keeps me on my toes and holds me accountable and pours into me. The folks I am blessed to call my village and family of friends are doing dope work in their own right: Raquel Henderson, Precious McKesson, Andrew Aleman, Tommy Young-Dennis, Darryl Brown Jr. We’re all attacking anti-Blackness from our own niches. We come together and support each other in creating an innovative eco-system approach to the work.” 

IBBG is also a clearinghouse for Black women moving to Omaha who want leads on hair-beauty salons, schools, neighborhoods, “We’ve become a community to embrace new Black women coming into this space. As a community I don’t think we put enough emphasis on community and cultural ties. You want to spend your free time in places where you can authentically show up. We really need to think about it more collectively and not just in silos.”

Having a community to draw on is also about personal safety in this highly charged social climate. “We know anti-Blackness lives. It’s great we create a sense of community and connectedness, and network with each other. But there’s also a piece of it around trying not to be put in harm's way. Black women moving here need to make sure they’re safe.”

“We know anti-Blackness lives. It’s great we create a sense of community and connectedness, and network with each other. But there’s also a piece of it around trying not to be put in harm's way. Black women moving here need to make sure they’re safe.”

-Ashlei Spivey

Meanwhile, Young Black & Influential leverages the power and influence of individuals where they’re at and invests in their future. “It’s literally the vision to build a movement of people and community who keep adding to it and providing their leadership, I helped to build it and now two YBI award recipients – Precious McKesson and Raquel Henderson– are leading it. I still do some work around the board training program.” 

YBI and IBBG express what Spivey wants to see more of. She articulated her vision at the Empowerment Network panel: “How can you give someone else the opportunity with no strings attached and really believe in them and create space for them to launch and do their own thing? I think sometimes we have a very binary box definition of what does it mean to be a professional …  to be a leader, and if it doesn’t fit into our box or our ideals then it’s not right. I don’t think that allows for true innovation or true collaboration across generations and other identities. You have to allow for people to figure out their own way to be creative.”

“We have folks that have won the Young Black & Influential award  from the incarcerated (population), people living with HIV, people that don’t have a formal education. It’s like the gamut … When we all come together it’s just beautiful the magic we make. We share resources and ideas. But if we didn’t change the definitions around what does it mean to be an influencer, a leader, we wouldn’t be in that space, we wouldn’t be able to make the impact that we have.” 

Her work continues amid the larger social justice movement that sparked after the George Floyd killing.

“I’m a little jaded and exhausted. It should not take extreme acts of violence against Black bodies for people to say we give a shit. Even though some people may be listening more, may feel more aware, we have to critically reflect on why did it take us seeing someone yet again lose their life on a video that went viral for us to say, okay, we believe you now. We need to critically reflect on how we show up as a country, as a community, as neighbors, as people that are in this work, because it shouldn’t look like that.”

She’s heartened by the movement.

“Young people are really stepping up and showing their power, influence and leadership in a very different way. It is encouraging, That’s what keeps me hopeful. It balances some of my bitterness.”

She’s a big proponent of intergenerational collaboration. “Having different points of view and approaches is healthy – it creates innovation. You want people to challenge you to make you think and critically reflect. We have to keep sharing across generations and experiences because it just makes us better and more strategic. Young folks and old folks think about things differently. I think you always have to work on those connections and what you can keep learning from each other.”

Serving the greater good comes with a price. One’s health can take a hit. Doing self-care,“is not easy, but it’s necessary,” she said, “It’s recognizing that, yes, I am committed, but it can’t be at the consequence of me. People expect you to give your life to the movement. But I can’t attend every single community meeting and still have space for my son, my partner and me. We have to allow people grace to say no. There are more self-care spaces now for Black folks to not lose themselves in trying to fight injustices on multiple fronts. It feels like we are figuring it out and growing.” 

There’s no slowing down this self-described “serial entrepreneur and builder of things.” In April she and partner Universal opened Best Burger in Florence. Pandemic precautions have hampered the operation, but, she said, “We have to go forward because we have invested everything into building a business, The Support Local and Support Black Business movements have helped us.”

Ever community-minded, she said, “Everything we do has a social lens to it. We hire from the community, including a lot of young folks. We pay over minimum wage, we are in an area with high food insecurity so we provide quality ingredients. We use grass-fed, non-GMO beef and turkey. Our vegan patty is from raw ingredients. We have roasted sweet potato fries. Yes, it’s fast food, but it doesn’t have to be greasy and bad for you.” 

Ashlei Spivey during an interview.

Best Burger got its start at Florence neighbor No More Empty Pots. 

“We utilized their kitchen and did our pop ups out of there,” Spivey said. “They helped us think about some of our structure and organization. They’ve been a great partner.” 

No More Empty Pots CEO Nancy Williams calls Spivey “a dedicated community advocate” and “force of action.” Said Williams, “She is involved in many initiatives in Omaha that have brought recognition beyond Omaha.” Williams admires how Spivey works on behalf of Black, indigenous and persons of color to provide, she said, “the best opportunity to live to their fullest potential,” adding, “Omaha is fortunate to have Ashlei sharing her talent and vision.”

The latest recognition to come Spivey’s way is as a Women’s Center for Advancement Tribute to Women honoree. 

Best Burger clearly won’t be her last enterprise. “I’m going to own other businesses. I like having different projects to work on.”

Her community focus will remain, Spivey said, “even if it’s helping other folks think about how they build organizations, companies, social movements – that’s where I thrive.” As for where she sees herself in 10 years, she said, “I’m being open to opportunity. I’m thinking about what is the impact I want to have, what does that look like, and how do I align myself to that. I just know I should be doing something. My hope is I leave this world a better place than I received it.”

Visit I Be Black Girl, Young Black and Influential, and Best Burger