Ashley Dorr, Director of Special Projects, The ArtReach Foundation

Ms. Dorr, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, received her BA from Roanoke College and her MA in Art Therapy from New York University. During her time as a graduate student she worked with child refugees from Sierra Leone and began the first Art Therapy program at Solace, a program of Safe Horizon. She is currently employed at The Door: A Center of Alternatives for adolescent youth.

Previously, Ms. Dorr spent five years as a school therapist with suspended students from the New York City public school system and currently works in the general counseling program providing individual and group therapy as well as supervising interns. She has been a consultant for Free Arts NYC running therapeutic art groups with families and has specialized in art therapy around issues of trauma, working with child amputees, children affected by 9/11 and in 2005 she traveled to Sri Lanka to work with children orphaned by ethnic war, poverty, and the Tsunami.

In addition to Ashley’s work at “The Door” she maintains a small private practice in New York City and consults with the ALL CITY Group to help create and direct their Art Therapy Program for an innovative new Medical Clinic in Harlem due to open in 2009. She has lectured and presented at SVA, NYU, and at various conferences nationally.

She is the author of a chapter titled Collaboration and Creativity: Art Therapy Groups in a School Suspension Program which can be found in the book Healing the Inner City Child: Creative Arts Therapies with At-Risk Youth edited by Vanessa Camilleri.

In 2006, Ashley began to wonder how to connect the work she did abroad with the adolescents she worked with on a daily basis. After years of experience she began seeing the similarities that existed in the need for self-expression and communication through art making across the cultures and people she had met. She created Art Exchange, which aims to connect children in NYC with traumatized children in various parts of the world through the creation of artistic symbols of hope and inspiration. The project, facilitated annually over the last 3 years during a summer youth development workshop, has empowered New York City youth to learn about other cultures, explore their own culture, and to create and send over 500 pieces of art to children from Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.

In addition to her work as an art therapist, Ashley finds inspiration from her daily yoga practice, which has strengthened her desire and efforts to make a contribution to the world using positive energy, creativity, compassion, and kindness. Ashley feels grateful to have witnessed the amazing resiliency that so many have shared and believes each person possesses this inner strength within them.

Ashley’s work with The ArtReach Foundation began in 2005 and is a member of their Core Faculty. She has participated in their programs for teachers and professional care-givers from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine.