Ashlei Elise selected for NAACP’s The Advancement List 2026
A Big First Step
Last year, I went to my first NAACP National Convention in Charlotte, NC.
I didn't really know what to expect.
I knew what the NAACP meant, of course. You don't grow up Black in America without knowing the NAACP. But knowing an organization and actually walking into a convention filled with thousands of people who, in one way or another, have decided that moving the world forward is worth their time, energy, careers, money, voices, and sometimes sanity...those are two very different things.
Being there had my thinking a lot about impact. The impact happening around me. And, if I'm being fair to myself, the impact happening through me.
Because by that point, my work at the International African American Museum had placed me in the middle of conversations about history, identity, belonging, representation, memory, family, and what it means to make sure our stories aren't just preserved, but seen.
And then there’s this world, this nation, that I call home.
There was plenty happening that made it very easy to wonder what any one person is supposed to do about any of it. But I knew I could do something.
On the last day of the convention, I remember walking over to the exhibit hall and bee-lining it to the station of workers talking about becoming a Champion for Change with the NAACP. I could be that.
Each month. Ten dollars. A Champion for Change.
There was no grand philanthropic strategy behind it. I wasn't trying to make some big statement. I just remember thinking that I believed this work mattered, and that I wanted to put something behind that belief.
So every month, my little $10 went toward impact.
And life kept moving. I kept working. I kept building. I kept telling stories. I kept trying to figure out what the next version of my own life and career might look like.
This year, I couldn't make it to the NAACP National Convention in Chicago. My work with the museum was at an all-time high as we had just announced the hard decision about furlough and the call for help pushed my skills as a marketer to new heights.
But a couple of months later, something happened that I absolutely did not see coming.
I was named to NAACP's inaugural The Advancement List as a 2026 honoree for Social Impact.
Me.
Social Impact.
Look at God.
There are 55 people on the inaugural list, representing leaders doing work across industries and communities. And what has stayed with me most isn't simply that my name is on it. It was the thought that somewhere, there were people having conversations about who should be seen; who is doing the work; whose leadership deserved recognition; whose name should be in rooms and conversations where people who look like us have historically been overlooked, underrepresented, or simply absent.
And at some point in those conversations, somebody thought of me.
I don't know if I'll ever be able to make that feel normal.
Trovon Williams, founder of The Advancement List, said something about the purpose of the initiative that explains why this recognition landed so deeply for me:
“The Advancement List is more than recognition — it's a declaration that Black excellence is not emerging, it is leading and shaping every corner of our society. It honors the trailblazers who are breaking barriers while building lasting pathways for others to follow across industries and generations.”
Black excellence is not emerging. It is leading.
Yeah. That part.
I've spent nearly 15 years building a career in marketing. And for most of those years, my job has been to make something else visible.
A brand. An organization. An event. A mission. A person. A story.
I've gotten pretty good at finding the thing that makes people care and then figuring out how to get other people to see it too. What I've been considerably less comfortable doing is turning that same instinct toward myself.
…it’s something that I'm working on this year.
Somewhere along the way, I started realizing that the next chapter of my life isn't about compartmentalizing and choosing between the things I am.
I am a marketing executive.
I am a writer.
I am building BAE Studios.
I am also very much in the “fake it, while you make it” club at times.
And apparently, I'm now an NAACP Social Impact honoree.
That's a sentence I'm going to need a minute with. The funniest thing is…my little $10 a month didn't earn me this recognition. That's not how any of this works, and I would never pretend otherwise. But the full circle of this moment gets me.
Last year, I walked into my first NAACP Convention and left asking myself how I could contribute to something bigger than me.
A year later, people I didn't know were paying attention looked at the work I'd been doing and decided it was contributing to something bigger than me.
Maybe that's why I'm thinking about this recognition as a first step instead of an arrival.
For a long time, I've been really comfortable being the person behind the curtain. I think I'm ready to come out from behind it a little.
So, here's to being seen.
And here's to whatever comes next.