Ashley Lewis

Ashley Lewis is an avid enthusiast of the art and science of tracking. She started her tracking journey learning to follow four-legged creatures, and she currently holds both Track and Sign Level III and Trailing Level III certifications through CyberTracker North America.

However, her passion for tracking wildlife and being outdoors led her to start her search and rescue career in 2011. She is an active member of the SAR community in Virginia and has been a tracking instructor with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) since 2014. Ashley also is a VDEM certified Management Team Member and Search Team Leader. She is a member of multiple SAR agencies across the Commonwealth of Virginia, and serves as Training Officer for the Southwest Virginia Mountain Rescue Group and Secretary for the Search and Rescue Tracking Institute. She served on the VASARCO committee to develop the new tracking standards for search and rescue in Virginia and helped NATS founder, Rob Speiden, edit the most recent version of his book, Foundations for Awareness, Signcutting and Tracking.

Ashley enjoys traveling and using her tracking skills across the world, and she recently went to Africa to collect data on mobile phones and human-wildlife conflict for her Master’s thesis. Though she never had a formal tracking class until 2011 she remembers being inspired at a young age by Bev Doolittle’s artwork, and encouraged by the time she spent as a youngster roaming the small patches of woods listening to birds and waiting for the foxes to come out at dusk.

In addition to teaching human and animal tracking she also assists with other Natural Awareness Tracking School courses, including land navigation and edible plants.