Ashley-Lauren Elrod

Ashley-Lauren Elrod is an Emmy-nominated social-impact founder, board-certified mental-health coordinator, and exploitation-prevention strategist working at the intersection of storytelling, policy, and healing. As founder and CEO of Visionary Woman Productions, she builds creative campaigns with nonprofits to safeguard children and dismantle systems of abuse. A Black and Indigenous changemaker and survivor of exploitation, Ashley-Lauren leverages lived experience plus more than two decades of board service with International Justice Mission, National Children's Alliance, the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, and others to advance survivor leadership and equitable media representation. Her flagship early-childhood initiative, The Maya’s Magic Word Project, equips caregivers and educators worldwide with creative tools that teach body autonomy, consent, and empowerment. Ashley-Lauren’s insights have informed audiences from the United Nations to grassroots youth collectives, modeling how creativity and community care can transform systems. Her mission is to cultivate safe, visionary spaces where young people rise as architects of a world free from exploitation.