Ashley Steel worked as a statistician and an ecologist for the US Government from 1999 – 2018. 

She served as Team Lead for Landscape Ecology and Recovery Science (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA) and Lead Statistician for the PNW Research Station (US Forest Service). 

She recently entered the world of official statistics at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) where she works in forest product statistics. 

Her main projects include modeling global woodfuel production, estimating carbon storage in harvested wood products, quantifying collection of wild foods from forests, enabling multi-disciplinary watershed management, and statistical capacity development.