Ashley Morken

Founder, Creative & Executive Director

Ashley Morken is the Founder, Executive & Creative Director of Healing Hearts Haven, a family enrichment organization dedicated to strengthening children, families, and communities through creativity, education, emotional integration, and opportunity. Her work bridges law, leadership, publishing, expressive arts, and personal development to create practical pathways for lasting human transformation.
 
Ashley earned her Juris Doctor and a Master's degree in Environmental Law and Policy before spending years representing children and families as a public defender in South Dakota's juvenile justice system. Working alongside young people whose lives had been shaped by trauma, abuse, addiction, neglect, and generational adversity, and recovering from her own childhood and young adult traumas, she witnessed a recurring problem: accountability existed, but meaningful opportunities to heal, belong, and discover purpose often did not. That realization, along with her own journey to healing systemic abuse became the catalyst for founding Healing Hearts Haven.
 
Today, Ashley has acquired a second master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, and leads an expanding ecosystem that brings together coaching, workshops, retreats, online learning, publishing, expressive arts, youth development, and community initiatives under one mission: helping people move beyond awareness into meaningful, embodied change. Her work is grounded in the belief that insight alone rarely transforms lives; lasting growth happens when creativity, relationships, education, and opportunity work together to help people integrate what they already know.
 
A published legal scholar whose work has appeared in the South Dakota Law Review, Ashley is also an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine, a published author, speaker, professional artist, and life coach. Through her writing, speaking, artwork, and educational programs, she explores topics including emotional integration, family systems, creative leadership, youth development, resilience, and building communities that foster belonging rather than simply reacting to brokenness.
 
Ashley's long-term vision is to establish a Healing Hearts Haven campus that serves as a restorative center where children, families, educators, artists, community leaders, and organizations come together to learn, create, heal, and grow. Her mission is rooted in one simple belief: You can't change what happened, but you can choose what happens next.