Ashley Halko-Addley, born September 1, 1995 in Regina, Saskatchewan, is the youngest of three children to Kathy and the late Wayne Halko. Ashley was baptized Ukrainian Orthodox at the Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Melnychuk) near Tuffnell, SK.. Throughout school, she participated in Ukrainian dance and danced with the Chaban Ukrainian Dance Ensemble and Zabutnyy Dance Company in Regina, and the Cudworth Ukrainian Dance Club. While attending university for her undergraduate degree in Saskatoon, she was a member of the Solovei Ukrainian Dance Group and the Lastiwka Ukrainian Orthodox Choir. While attending university for her graduate degree in Edmonton, she was involved with the Veeteretz School of Ukrainian Dance and the Viter Ukrainian Dancers and Folk Choir (choir member).

Ashley attended the University of Saskatchewan from 2013-17, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts High Honours degree in Anthropology with a minor in Ukrainian Studies. Ashley was on the Dean's List (top 5%) each year, and in 2017, she was awarded the Most Outstanding Graduate in Anthropology from the College of Arts and Science. Ashley spent five weeks in Ukraine in 2016 studying Anthropology and language at the Ternopil National Pedagogical University, as part of the St. Thomas More College Spring Session in Ukraine program. During her undergraduate degree, Ashley received numerous awards and scholarships, including the John Russell Kowalchuk Award in Ukrainian Studies, the Ukrainian Self-Reliance Association Language Award, the Rose Semko-Hrynchuk Scholarship, the Leo J. Krysa Family Undergraduate Scholarship, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Saskatchewan Provincial Council Community Achievement Award in the Youth Achievement category.

Ashley was very active in the Ukrainian student movement. In her first two years of university, Ashley was a resident of St. Petro Mohyla Institute. During that time, she sat on the executive of the Kameniari Ukrainian Student Society, serving her first term as Treasurer, and second term as President. She served three terms on the executive of the University of Saskatchewan Ukrainian Students’ Association, as Mohyla Representative, Vice-President Internal, and co-President. Ashley also sat on the board of directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union (SUSK) for three terms, as Alumni Director for two years, and as Executive Vice-President for one year. Ashley also sat on the University of Alberta Ukrainian Students’ Society executive as Media Technician.

She has worked as a Museum Assistant at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Saskatoon, Marking Assistant for Ukrainian language classes at the University of Saskatchewan, as Assistant Director in the two sessions: children and teens at Green Grove Camp, Wakaw Lake, as counsellor at St. Petro Mohyla Institute’s Ukrainian Summer Immersion Cultural & Language Program, as a Research Assistant at the Kule Folklore Centre, and at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.

Ashley moved to Edmonton in September 2017. She completed her Master of Arts in Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies in 2019. Ashley received the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s (SSHRC CGS-M) in 2018. Her research topic was the Ukrainian wax healing ceremony on the Canadian Prairies.