Meet Ashlee Lucas

“Goodwill has given me so many things, but most of all, my life.”
-Ashlee

Ashlee is the Goodwill Central Texas Property Services Supervisor responsible for managing the Property Services Team and coordinating all of the real estate projects. Needless to say, Ashlee is a person on which the organization greatly depends upon, and she looks forward to the challenges of her job every day. But, this was not always the case.

Ashlee was 16 when she became heavily involved in selling and using drugs. Her life began to spiral out of control. At age 20, after several arrests, she was sentenced to nine years in prison. “That’s when it really set in,” says Ashlee. “I was a felon, and I’d lost everyone.”

After she was paroled, she felt very much alone. “My family was trying to be there for me, but they couldn’t believe anything that I said,” recounts Ashlee. “I’d burned bridges, rebuilt them, and burned them all over again.”

Her first objective was to get a job. A friend told her that Goodwill has a second-chance hiring policy so she applied. Charles Jackson hired Ashlee as a part-time production manager, and he became her mentor.

Ashlee felt truly valued as an employee and had a greater sense of purpose. But more than anything, she wanted to be in the offices at the Goodwill Community Center. Ashlee happened to be there when a colleague mentioned a job opening in Property Services. “He was telling me he needed a supervisor,” Ashlee recalls. “I thought, I can do that!” She was interviewed – and got the job.

“It was like a dream. And now, my co-workers trust me, my family trusts me – I’ve come full circle.” And, Ashlee wants everyone who has fallen to know that there is hope. “Don’t give up. I have an amazing future ahead of me, and I’m going to keep going for every bit of wonderful life that’s out there.”