in English literature and a minor in journalism in 1924, she enrolled in Columbia University, pursuing a graduate degree in anthropology.
While working for Emory, Ashley, along with Frank T. Schnell Sr., performed significant excavations at Lockett Mound, now known as the Neisler site (9Tr1), located near the Flint River.
Ashley and Schnell spent three weeks at Neisler, performing major trench excavation atop the mound and surveying 250 test units.
On February 18, 1930, Ashley married Gerald Towle, a Harvard graduate and Moorehead's top field assistant.
In the late 1940s, she returned to the graduate program in anthropology at Columbia, this time focusing on ethnobotany and working with Duncan Strong.