it’s time to get to work…
… so let’s work together.
Dr. S. Ashleigh Weeden is an award-winning writer, researcher, community developer, and rural futurist whose work is fundamentally concerned with place, power, and policy - and how these forces shape our lives, particularly in rural contexts and during times of seismic socioeconomic change. She works with leaders in communities and organizations of all sizes to develop critical pathways towards their preferred futures.
A long-time advocate for the power of place-based approaches as critical mechanisms for re-centering public policy on what matters most - ensuring everyone is included in a vibrant, vital future - Dr. Weeden has spent her career championing community-led innovation. She provides effective, pragmatic solutions to high-stakes policy problems, from nuclear energy to economic development, infrastructure management to strategic planning, and has developed a reputation for “speaking truth to power” through her provocative and impactful interventions.
With more than fifteen years of progressively influential contributions to both research and practice, Dr. Weeden has become a sought-after thought leader in the areas of future-oriented public sector leadership, the application of the “right to be rural” in research and practice, advancing evidence-informed rural policy renewal, community-first approaches to innovation and economic transformation, and place-based public stewardship.
Beyond her work in research and practice, Dr. Weeden has provided expert commentary to outlets and organizations like Buzzfeed News, the Ryerson Review of Journalism, the David Hume Institute (Scotland), the Scottish Government, CBC News, and CTV News, as well as several podcasts and community news outlets. Dr. Weeden has published widely in both scholarly and popular press, and her work can be read in publications like The Conversation Canada, IRPP Policy Options, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the Annals of Regional Science, the Journal of Rural and Community Development, the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, the Rural Policy Learning Commons, CIGI Online, and her long-standing column in Municipal World.
Recent & Upcoming Appearances
July 12, 2025 - Poetry in the Gallery, Gallery at Blyth Festival Theatre, Poetry Reading (Blyth, Ontario)
January 20, 2025 - Rural Ontario Municipalities Association, Annual Conference (Toronto, Ontario)
November 18, 2024 - Art of Caring Gala (Owen Sound, Ontario)
October 16, 2024 - R2R24: Exploring Our Differences Together (Blyth, Ontario)
Recent Publications
Effective rural policy is critical to Canada’s security, stability and sovereignty (Policy Options)
Our future depends on infrastructure. It’s time to act like it. (Policy Options)
Outsmarting urbanism: Can leveraging the ‘right to be rural’ produce alternative futures? Chapter in The Smartification of Everything. (forthcoming, September 20-2025)
Recent projects
Education
University of Guelph
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, RURAL STUDIES
Defended (with distinction) November 2022, Conferred February 2023
uNIVERSITY OF vICTORIA
MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (CO-OP)
Defended December 2010, Conferred June 2011
University of Guelph
HONOURS BACHELOR OF ARTS, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGE)
Graduated February 2008