Dr. Deborah Ashton
President | Planet Perspective
Dr. Deborah Ashton is the President of Planet Perspective. She is a DEI & ESG strategist and consultant with 30+ years of cross-industry experience. Dr. Ashton headed diversity and inclusion for Medtronic, Darden Restaurants, Harley-Davidson, Novant Health and Argonne National Laboratory. She specializes in assessing inclusive cultural and leadership effectiveness, assisting organizations and leaders to be more effective in a diverse environment and advising boards to better address the needs of a diverse and global customer base and workforce.
Dr. Ashton is an inductee into Inclusion Magazine’s 2021 D&I Hall of Fame. She was named as one of Savoy Magazine’s 2014 Top Influential Women in Corporate America and recognized as a Health Equity Pioneer by American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity in 2023. She received Clarke University’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Awards – Outstanding Achievement Award.
As a member of the Clarke University’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Ashton serves on the Audit Committee and the Finance and Facilities Committee. She serves/d as the Advisory Committee Board Member for American Diversity Report and the Mill Road Progressive Governance Fund, Mill Road Capital and as an executive coach for the Diversity Woman Network. She is the former Chief of Test Development and Validation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Dr. Ashton, a licensed psychologist, was a Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and has a Ph.D. and an Ed.D. in Clinical Psychology & Public Practice from Harvard University and was a Ford Foundation Fellow. At Harvard, she studied with Dr. Chester ‘Chet’ Pierce, who coined the term microaggression. She earned her BA, Psychology with honors, from Clarke College. She received a NextGen Directors Program Certification, from UC Berkeley Executive Education & Directors Academy, Haas School of Business. She is certified in Climate Leadership by Diligent Academy and is certified as a LaMarsh Master of Managed Change™. She received a Certificate in Diversity Management from Georgetown University & The Institute for Diversity-American Hospital Association.
Dr. Ashton is a member of the NYSE Board Candidate Network. She has authored articles for the Harvard Business Review and other prestigious journals on pay equity, inclusion, diversity, and diversity maturity models. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. https://www.planetperspective.com/
Coaching Specialties: Mitigating unconscious and systemic biases in the workplace, challenging organizational culture, self-promotion and bias navigation
