Ashley Caldwell, a 21-year-old New Brunswick school board member and rising star in New Jersey politics, has joined a Trenton lobbying firm after working there as an intern following her graduation from Rutgers University earlier this year.
Capital Impact Group announced today that Caldwell, the daughter of Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell, has accepted a full-time position at the firm.
“Ashley has already been invaluable to our firm and clients, and we look forward to seeing her continue to grow,” said Gerry Gibbs, a principal at Capital Impact Group.
She moves into the full-time position following an internship with the firm, where she conducted legislative research and policy analysis and assisted with client communications, advocacy campaigns, and other government affairs initiatives.
Caldwell was appointed to the Board of Education in 2024, at age 19, to replace her father, who left office after 26 years to spend more time in his post as president of Centenary University.
In April, Caldwell was the top vote-getter in her bid for a full three-year term on the school board.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Before joining Capital Impact Group, Caldwell held internships with the City of New Brunswick and the Middlesex County Courthouse, experiences that gave her an early grounding in municipal government, public policy, and civic engagement.
At Capital Impact Group, Caldwell will help advance the firm’s clients’ legislative and public policy priorities while helping develop government affairs and public affairs strategies.
Her family has extensive roots in education, public service, and the civil rights movement.
Caldwell’s late grandfather, the Rev. Gilbert Caldwell, was a prominent civil rights leader who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and participated in some of the movement’s defining campaigns, including the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery. Her grandmother was an educator who emphasized education’s power to transform communities. Generations of family members going back to the Civil War era were ministers.