Weslynne Ashton is a Professor of Environmental Management and Sustainability at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she holds joint appointments at the Stuart School of Business and the Institute of Design. She also co-directs the Institute of Design’s Food Systems Action Lab, working at the intersection of sustainability, innovation and systems thinking. Her academic career at Illinois Tech spans more than a decade, from Assistant Professor in 2010 to Associate Professor in 2017, and Professor in 2023. Alongside her teaching and research, she has played a central leadership role within the university, leading the Purpose Council in 2021 and the Civic Engagement Task Force in 2024.
Before her tenure at Illinois Tech, Weslynne built a global academic and professional foundation rooted in environmental science and applied systems research. She served as Associate Research Scientist at Yale University and Director of the Program on Industrial Ecology in Developing Countries, where she trained researchers and graduate students across South and Southeast Asia. Her work included visiting faculty appointments at TERI University in India and the National University of Singapore, translating theory into practice across diverse economic and cultural contexts. Earlier in her career, she worked as an Environmental Scientist at Gradient Corporation and as General Manager of Technology Experts Caribbean Holdings, grounding her academic insights in operational experience.
Weslynne’s academic journey began at MIT, where she earned a BS in environmental engineering, followed by an MS and PhD in environmental science from Yale University. She was an Associate Fellow of the Yale World Fellows Program and later a Jefferson Science Fellow at USAID, experiences that deepened her engagement with policy, development and international collaboration. In 2024, she was named a Thinkers50 Radar recipient, recognising her influence as an emerging global thinker shaping the future of management and sustainability.
As a keynote speaker, Weslynne Ashton is hired for her ability to connect rigorous research with real-world impact. She speaks with clarity about circular economy thinking, multi-capital systems and equitable transitions, offering audiences practical frameworks grounded in lived examples from academia, industry and global development. Event organisers value her calm authority, intellectual depth and collaborative mindset, particularly when addressing leaders navigating complex sustainability challenges who need ideas they can act on.
