Ashling Preston

Ashling Preston is the Director of Federal Affairs at the American Federation for Children (AFC), where she leads the organization’s federal legislative and policy strategy — including work to ensure the successful rollout and future legislative expansion of the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC), the first federal school choice tax credit in U.S. history. 

Ashling brings a rare and distinctively credentialed background to this role. She has been a classroom teacher, a Capitol Hill policy staffer for two of the Senate’s most prominent school choice advocates, and a federal government relations professional for the U.S. Catholic Church, giving her direct experience across all three of the constituencies most critical to the EFTC’s success. 

Before joining AFC in December 2025, Ashling spent nearly two years at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), where she managed federal advocacy on the Bishops’ education and domestic policy agenda — representing the policy interests of the U.S. Catholic Church before Congress and the Administration. Prior to the USCCB, Ashling served for nearly four years in the United States Senate. She held roles of increasing seniority in Senator Tim Scott’s office —  Deputy Legislative Assistant, and ultimately education policy advisor (January 2023–May 2024). She also served as a Policy Fellow in Senator Marco Rubio’s office (August 2020–August 2021). Both Scott and Rubio have been among the Senate’s most prominent school choice advocates, and Ashling’s work in their offices gave her direct experience shaping federal education legislation. 

Ashling began her career as an English Language Arts teacher and Content Lead at Gestalt Community Schools in Memphis, Tennessee through Teach For America (2018–2020). That classroom experience — combined with her graduate studies at Johns Hopkins — gives her a practitioner’s perspective that is rare among federal education lobbyists.  

Ashling holds a Master of Science in Education from Johns Hopkins University School of Education. She lives in Maryland with her husband, son, and daughter.