Ashley Adams has been a professional organizer since he graduated from Amherst College in 1979. He worked first as a community organizer in the Boston area and then became a union organizer, organizing director, and staff director for both public and private sector unions in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Maine. He has lectured at colleges and universities, and led numerous training sessions for unions on the subjects of leadership training and recruitment, collective bargaining, building organizational power, and organizing employees into unions. He is a leader in the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, and has written numerous articles and training materials on the subject of organizing, as well as a book, Union Power Tools (Cliff Street Books, 2020).