About
Integrating social justice leadership development and mindfulness practices, Kyle Ashlee facilitates classes, workshops, and retreats for those who believe in the power of love to transform our lives and our communities. He leads heartful yoga classes, facilitates reflective social justice leadership workshops, and writes about social justice and mindfulness, including an award-winning book - VITAL: A Torch For Your Social Justice Journey. Kyle Ashlee earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Miami University in 2019, his Master's degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Colorado State University in 2009, and his Bachelor's degrees in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2007. He completed his 200-hour yoga teacher training in Toronto, Canada with Modo Yoga International in 2022 and he is a lifelong student of yoga and mindfulness. Currently, Kyle teaches classes in the College Counseling and Student Development program at St. Cloud State University and he leads yoga classes at Modo Yoga - Minneapolis.
Topics
From publishing articles and teaching college classes to serving as the Chair of the ACPA Coalition on Men and Masculinities, Kyle Ashlee has dedicated his career to thinking critically about men and masculinities within the context of patriarchy. In his facilitations, Kyle considers masculinity within the context of inherited systems of power and invites participants to mindfully reflect on perspectives of manhood through a lens of love.
Every conversation Kyle Ashlee facilitates about whiteness and systemic racism is an opportunity for him to continue the process of unlearning and healing from racist socialization. Drawing from his experience at the Social Justice Training Institute (SJTI), his academic scholarship, and his social justice consulting with his wife, Dr. Aeriel Ashlee, Kyle invites others to join him in critically examining whiteness within the context of systemic racism and mindfully pursuing loving actions for racial justice.
Whether leading a yoga class or facilitating a conversation with organization leaders, Kyle Ashlee understands that leadership, social justice, and mindfulness are all interrelated. Kyle explores essential principles of social justice leadership, including vulnerability, identity, trust, authorship, and liberation, and invites participants to mindfully pursue love within ourselves and promote healing from inherited systems of power.
Through mindfulness practices, like yoga and meditation, Kyle Ashlee has discovered that cultivating love within ourselves allows us to promote healing and liberation from inherited systems of power. Kyle facilitates mindful movement and invites participants to foster loving practices on the yoga mat in order to transform their lives and communities off the mat.
Featured Writing
Using Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), two student affairs professionals reflect on how they challenge white supremacy both personally and professionally. Kyle Ashlee and his co-authors provide recommendations for using CWS as a framework to inform racial justice activism with white educators.
In this paper, Kyle Ashlee demonstrates how mindfulness practices can be used with white college students to promote their racial identity development and reduce harm to racially marginalized students in diversity education.
With increasingly diverse student populations, exploring intersections of identity has become a central focal point for college and university educators. In this article, Kyle and Aeriel Ashlee assert that exploring intersectionality for those with privileged and dominant identities is necessary to engage in transformative social justice work.
Book
VITAL: A Torch for Your Social Justice Journey
In this award-winning book, Kyle and Aeriel Ashlee offer approachable and accessible tools for social justice leadership. VITAL - Vulnerability, Identity, Trust, Authorship, and Liberation - the five core principles of this book, will give readers the tools and confidence they need to effectively integrate social justice into their lives and their work. This book is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book.
Connect with Kyle Ashlee
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