Ashley Heath Dietz previously served as senior director of community partnerships and operations for United Way Suncoast, where she led the integration of the community investment process, partnership strategies and regional contract management process across the organization’s five-county footprint. She also was selected part of Leadership Tampa 2022, which is coordinated by the Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce.
She has served as the chair of the Florida Chapter for Peak Grantmaking, a member-led community of grants management professionals who foster collaboration to enable philanthropy to achieve its full potential for good. She previously worked at the Sydney Council in Sydney, Australia, for five years, managing complex funding streams and processes at the local government level.
1. College alma mater? I have three. I started at the University of Tennessee, at Knoxville, and transferred to Webster University, in St. Louis, to be closer to my ailing father at the time. I received my master’s degree from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
2. Last show you binge watched? Mare of Easttown on HBO.
3. Favorite place for a business meeting? Oxford Exchange or Seasons 52.
4. iPhone or Android? iPhone.
5. What did you eat for lunch today? Tomato soup and a salad.
6. We’ll find you on the weekend doing? Going to my daughter’s soccer game, playground shenanigans with my youngest, fire-pitting it up in our backyard, dinner with my husband at Armature Works or going to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game.
7. What movie terrified you as a child? Gremlins. I thought there were gremlins hiding all throughout my house. I was terrified to go into my basement for years.
8. Proudest moment? The birth of my two beautiful daughters and marrying my husband, Paul.
9. Dream dinner companion? Melinda Gates or MacKenzie Scott.
10. Any pets? River Dietz — she is a blue merle Australian shepard.
11. Best concert you’ve ever seen live? Three-way tie: Coldplay, Justin Timberlake and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
12. What is your cellphone wallpaper image? My kids being cute and silly.
13. Most famous person you’ve ever met? I shook hands, once, with Sen. Bob Dole when he was running for president in the ’90s.
14. What is your go-to drink order? Grande cappuccino, ristretto and oat milk.
15. Favorite candy? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
16. Last thing you ordered from Amazon? Ski pants. I’m going skiing for the first time in Breckenridge, Colorado. Praying I don’t break any bones.
17. Pool or beach? Beach, for sure. We joined the Freedom Boat Club last year and we love going out to local sandbars.
18. Charity you support? United Way Suncoast and the Kimberly Home.
19. Favorite childhood memory? Singing musical theater soundtracks with my older sister, Heather.
20. Words of advice? “You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up.” — George L. Bell
