Cathy Ashmore

Dr. Ashmore is a nationally recognized leader in entrepreneurship education and has provided the foundation of its development in the past twenty-eight years among career and technical educators and educational leaders in the primary and secondary schools, colleges and adult education. Her educational background follows:

Doctorate, 1981 University of Michigan, Ph.D in Education, major in Occupational Education and sub majors in business and administration.

Master, 1975 The Ohio State University, MA in Education, with a major in Marketing and Distributive Education and special work in curriculum development.

Bachelor, 1955 Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, BS in Business Administration with major in Marketing and Merchandising, and minor in English.

In 1997 Dr. Ashmore established the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education as a non-profit corporation in Ohio and serves as its executive director. This is a continuation of the national leadership organization that she established at The Ohio State University in 1982. She is director of the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education, consisting of 25 states taking leadership to infuse entrepreneurship education K-16 and adult education and an additional 80+ organizations nationwide that support the development of entrepreneurship in the United States.

Currently she is leading the Consortium in hosting National Entrepreneurship Week, officially first celebrated in February 2007, and again in February 2008 and 2009. The Week honors the contributions entrepreneurs are making to our economy and provides recognition of the education and training being provided to future entrepreneurs. The Week was initiated in 2006 by U S Congressional Resolution #699. See www.NationalEweek.org.

Dr. Ashmore has managed many projects in the United States including designing new entrepreneurship programs, training teachers, developing databases, studying young entrepreneurs, surveying business owners/teachers/students, as well as serving as executive director of the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education. From 1990 - 1996 Dr. Ashmore was directly involved with programs that brought entrepreneurship training to the newly developing market economies of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia, South Africa and Kyrgyzstan.

Dr. Ashmore is a 1990 recipient of the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education awarded by The Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, PA. She is past president of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the U.S. affiliate of the International Council for Small Business. In 2006 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from USASBE in recognition of her contributions in building the field of entrepreneurship education. At the most recent Entrepreneurship FORUM the Consortium Board initiated an Award in her name, and awarded it to her as the first recipient.