Ash Hanson (she/her) has over 20 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Founder and Creative Executive Officer (CEO) of Department of Public Transformation, a nonprofit working at the intersection of creativity and civic life with rural communities across the country. She is the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life and exploring imagined futures. She has been an embedded artist-in-residence with the City of Minneapolis and the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, integrating creative community engagement strategies into urban and rural planning processes. She was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and Bush Foundation Fellow for her creative civic leadership work with rural communities. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre with a focus on Rural Community Development from University of Manchester (UK). She is a Leo, an outdoor enthusiast, and a lover of grand adventures who believes deeply in the power of sharing stories on front porches, karaoke as an organizing strategy, engaging in radical acts of play, and the overuse of exclamation points!