She has a B.S. degree in Education (1984), M.S. in Higher Education (1986) and a Ph.D. in Communication from The Florida State University. She worked with Fortune 500 Companies such as Eveready Battery, Sonoco, and Coca Cola for the past 20 years as a management consultant with Cornelius and Associates. Her expertise is in the area of interpersonal communication including leadership, organizational communication, public speaking and gender. She has presented conference papers in the area of communication at both regional and national levels. In recent years she has been acknowledged as one of the Top 10 professors at the University of Louisville. Mary Z. Ashlock lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband and two teenage children.