Ashley Z. Hand

Ashley Z. Hand, AIA, LEED AP BD+C was appointed the first Chief Innovation Officer of the City of Kansas City, Missouri by Mayor Sly James in January 2013 and the first female municipal CIO in the country. Working collaboratively across departments, Ashley focuses on process improvement through strategic planning, staff involvement and the use of lean methodology and design thinking. In addition, she supports the Mayor's Challenge Cabinet and other initiatives to enhance civic engagement in Kansas City. Previously, Ashley was an architectural designer and planner for the global firm AECOM where she worked for both public and private sector clients across North America to adopt sustainable best practices and process improvement through community engagement, policy, and operational change management. Ashley holds a BA in political science from McGill University and a Masters of Architecture from the Pratt Institute and is a registered architect in the State of Missouri. She has been recognized by the Central Exchange as a 2014 Rising Star in Technology in the inaugural STEMMy Awards, the American Institute of Architects Kansas City as the 2012 Emerging Professional of the Year, the Kansas City Business Journal as the inaugural NextGen class of 2013, and NextCity as the Vanguard Class of 2014 for urban leadership. Ashley is a founding board member of the Friends of Hale Cook, a nonprofit that partnered with Kansas City Public Schools to reopen a public elementary school in August 2013.