Hi, I'm Ashley Scruse, PhD
I'm a researcher, a founder, a mom, a builder, and the list goes on. Along my journey I've heard it all: “You're doing too much.” “Pick a lane.” “What's your niche?” I picked all of them. And I'm still not done.
Below is the long version of how I got here, and why I stopped trying to pick a lane and started doing “too much”.
Get comfortable.
THE LONG VERSION.
THE MATH.
Back in 2013 I attended the illustrious Clark Atlanta University to study mathematics, mostly because I was good at it and it's the major that finally earned the nod of approval from my dad. By the end of freshman year I was tutoring anyone who needed help with calculus, and I fell in love with getting paid for what I know (and can teach).
Clark Atlanta. Freshman year.
GRAD SCHOOL.
It wasn't until I was a bioinformatics PhD student at the University of Georgia that I really stepped into entrepreneurship. On top of being a full-time researcher I started a wig-making business. The two areas of my life didn't align on paper, but they made sense to me. This is where I really started to learn the value of systems.
UGA, mid-PhD.
ADOA, on the side.
THE KITCHEN.
Around 2020 I caught COVID and lost my sense of smell and taste for about two years. As my senses started to come back, I developed parosmia. Everything tasted and smelled like garbage. Processed food and fast food were the worst. Fresh ingredients were fine.
This is where my true love and intention for cooking came from.
By the time my senses came all the way back, I'd become a home cook.
A sourdough loaf.
The starter.
Pho, the saving grace.
MOTHERHOOD AND A PHD.
My last stretch of grad school overlapped with motherhood. I gave birth in 2023 and finished my PhD in bioinformatics at UGA in 2024.
The mom hat doesn't sit on top of the others. It's foundational. It reorders the whole stack.
Mom and son.
Me and Dr. Arnold.
BACK TO THE AUC.
After graduating I came back to the AUC where it all started. I joined Morehouse College and spent the year building programs, training undergrads, and teaching myself how to code.
QUIET STACK.
In August 2025 I joined the Atlanta Blockchain Center's Immutable Founders Cohort #6. That's where I built Quiet Stack, my first real tech startup.
Quiet Stack is where I figured out the distinction I'd been circling since the wig business. I like entrepreneurship. I don't like the version of it that requires me to physically build something with my hands for money. I like building ideas, solutions, and technology I can ship and sell without needing to be in the room when it happens.
Cohort #6, the friends.
On stage at ABC.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR.
In December 2025 I was promoted to Deputy Director of the Morehouse Supercomputing Facility. That's where I am now.
Among the racks.
WHERE I AM NOW.
These days I split my time between leadership at the Morehouse Supercomputing Facility (MSCF), Quiet Stack, and writing here. Blog posts, development templates, frameworks, tools, resources, workshops, programs. Not just for the students I have access to at the school, but for anyone reading this page.
Plus all the other hats that don't have an official job title: sister, daughter, cousin, friend, crafter, home cook, self-taught developer. The list keeps going. I don't ever stop.
The pressure to pick a lane is about making other people more comfortable with their own worldview. Life was never meant to fit into a box.
Some of us are parents and researchers and founders and crafters and home cooks and more. The people who tell us we can't are usually the ones who don't believe in themselves.
And before anyone asks…
I'm not telling you to do too much for you. I'm telling you to do too much for them. Other people will never want you to surpass them or accomplish things they thought they couldn't. “Doing too much” is what they say when they're watching you live more than they let themselves live. That's their limited beliefs projected onto your life. Y'all are not the same. Your beliefs are bigger than theirs. As long as YOU know you're not doing too much, their opinion doesn't matter.
If any of this lands, you're probably someone who's been called too much by someone who couldn't keep up. Welcome. Take what helps.
Got a project?
LET'S WORK ON IT.
I take on a limited number of 1:1 sessions, workshops, and project consultations each quarter. Pick the lane that fits.
Personal
1:1 Sessions
Strategy, workflows, and stuck moments. Async-friendly. 60-minute calls.
Group
Workshops
Custom AI and research-workflow workshops for your team or department.
Scoped
Project Consults
Bounded-scope advisory on a specific project. Set deliverables, set price.
Limited slots. I usually reply within 48 hours.
hope to hear from you →
Once a week.
NOTES IN
YOUR INBOX.
New writing on AI workflows, building things on the side, and the strange parts of having more than one job. One email a week, no clutter.