Ashley Sides Johnson, MA

TEDx Speaker and PR Executive

Bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and podcast co-host Ashley Sides Johnson loves learning, is a stickler for good grammar, and always has a follow up question or bad joke. She wrestles with a fierce anxiety disorder and uses her words to advocate for improved mental health in the workplace and the world—because someone has to talk about it.

Professionally, Ashley is an experienced marketing and public relations specialist with fifteen years dedicated to health care. She was in the first class of Kentucky hospital workers to be trained on the IRS-required Community Health Needs Assessment and still serves as a regional expert on this topic.

She teaches public speaking as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Indiana and has the privilege of instructing the health professions students. To better support them and the teenagers who gather at her house, Ashley earned certification in Youth Mental Health First Aid and the QPR (Question. Persuade. Refer.) suicide prevention program.

Ashley received a bachelor of arts degree from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and enjoyed a study-abroad term in Japan and an internship organizing the 2000 Vice Presidential Debate while there. Years later, she earned a master’s degree in communication from Western Kentucky University. Ashley lives in Henderson, Kentucky, with her husband and kids. In her free time, she cooks all the food and does not go running.

There’s an Elephant in Your Office

A quarter of the US adult population, 64.6 million people, live with a mental health disorder. But, shhhh, we don’t talk about that at work—until now.

Having recognized that it’s time to create a post-pandemic environment where everyone can do the job they were hired to do, including employees with a mental illness or psychiatric disability, Ashley Sides Johnson and Andrea Sides Herron are back with There’s an Elephant in Your Office: Practical Tips to Successfully Identify and Support Mental and Emotional Health in the Workplace, Second Edition.

Using a herd of elephants as a metaphor for employees experiencing a mental illness or episode of poor mental health, Ashley and Andrea share their collective knowledge and experiences to equip employers, managers, and supervisors with the tools and information they need to help people on all rungs of the corporate ladder notice, identify, and properly interact with the elephants in their office.