A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Ashlee studied religion and sociology at Wake Forest University and received an M.Div. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1991. For four years, she served as the Southern Baptist chaplain at Harvard University and then spent a year working with Sabeel Liberation Theology Center and the Middle East Council of Churches in Jerusalem. In 1998 Ashlee completed an S.T.M. degree in religion and society from the Andover Newton Theological School. Having received standing in the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, she served as an interim pastor in Allston, MA and as an associate pastor at Seattle First Baptist Church.

In September 2003, Ashlee was blessed to be called to pastor the The First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain. Over her years as pastor in JP she has overseen the renewal and rebuilding of the congregation and the church building and has encouraged the church to embrace social justice ministries as integral to the gospel message of Jesus. She is married to Lance Laird and mom to Naim, Aidan and Mycah.