Ashley Stowe, Ph.D., MBA
Ashley Stowe, Ph.D., MBA, has been named ORAU Chief Growth and Partnerships Officer. In his new role, Stowe will work to combine the company’s business development, government services, and research and university partnerships organizations into a single unit focused on strategic growth and partnerships that drive national impact.
Stowe joined ORAU as Chief Research and University Partnerships Officer in April 2025. In that role, he has worked to strengthen ORAU’s research enterprise, drive innovation and foster collaboration across ORAU’s 170-plus member university consortium – including opening the consortium to community colleges for the first time in its 80-year history – and empowered ORAU’s STEM Accelerator team to develop the Nuclear Energy Academic Roadmap for nuclear workforce readiness in light of U.S. nuclear renaissance workforce demands.
“Ashley has leveraged his creativity and visionary leadership in leading and empowering the team in ORAU’s Research and University Partnerships Office,” said Meghan Millwood, ORAU president and CEO. “As an example, under his leadership we’ve seen the ORAU STEM Accelerator team be empowered to reach out and include in the conversation the skilled trades workers necessary to build the new nuclear facilities coming to Oak Ridge. Empowering employees to best serve our government agency customers and build relationships with key stakeholders in the communities where we do business is critical to ORAU’s success and is Ashley’s strategic leadership sweet spot.”
Stowe is a recent graduate of the inaugural Porter Development Initiative Fellows Academy, where he led a presentation on nuclear energy as the keystone to East Tennessee’s economic future. The PDI Fellows Academy brought together business, higher education, government, economic development, workforce and nonprofit leaders from six states for a four-day leadership institute at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.
Before joining ORAU, Stowe spent 18 years at Y-12 in a variety of roles including director of Y-12’s Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center. Stowe also is an adjunct lecturer at the College of Business at the University of Tennessee, and is an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UT.
Stowe earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Florida State University and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Tennessee.