Our story
An ongoing practice of public service.
Public Servants grew from decades of work alongside people and institutions serving the public—and from a belief that thoughtful research, design, strategy, and communication can help those institutions serve people better.
Our firm is young. The practice, relationships, and commitment behind it are not.
A values-led path, long before civic tech had a name
Public Servants founder Ashleigh Axios began her career supporting nonprofit initiatives focused on education access, HIV/AIDS relief, and environmental impact. Long before civic tech had a name, she was applying design to challenges faced by mission-driven teams around the world.
By 2009, her work had expanded to U.S. government systems, starting with federal agencies including the Army and the Federal Trade Commission. She joined the Obama White House during its first term, at a time when the federal government was only beginning to build the dedicated digital service teams, fellowships, and practices that would later expand the field.
The work was never just about fixing a website or product. It was about understanding how people experience their government—and how design and communication can make public institutions more accessible, useful, and responsive.
Public service has always been bigger than government.
It’s the work of caring for people, strengthening institutions, and contributing to something larger than ourselves.
A government designed to serve everyone
Working alongside multidisciplinary teams across the White House, Ashleigh led design efforts behind its first mobile website, first apps, and the full responsive redesign of WhiteHouse.gov. She helped evolve its digital presence from primarily one-way communication toward multidirectional engagement—creating more ways for people to participate, organize, and interact directly with their government, including through We the People, the White House’s open-source petitions platform.
Read the archived post reflecting on two decades of WhiteHouse.gov design evolution.
Beyond its platforms, Ashleigh worked across policy, communications, digital, and creative teams to shape how consequential moments and policies were communicated to the public, from the Iran nuclear agreement to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage. Her role brought design and communication together to help make complex government actions understandable and accessible.
The lesson that carried forward was simple: how institutions communicate, design, listen, and deliver shapes how people experience them.
Ashleigh Axios, Founder and CEO of Public Servants LLC
“Public servants hold our democracies together. With the right investment and partnership, we can bring democratic values to life and build systems that serve people with care and integrity.”
Building the practice, not just the projects
Public service is bigger than any one institution
Ashleigh’s commitment to public service extended beyond a single administration, organization, or political moment. Over time, the work expanded from designing individual public experiences to helping build the infrastructure, teams, and practices that make better public outcomes possible.
She co-founded DotGov Design and launched its namesake conference, chaired AIGA nationally and locally in Washington, D.C., and has mentored generations of designers and civic practitioners. She now serves as a trustee at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), continuing her investment in education and the people who will shape what comes next.
Her work has also included supporting the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force and helping teams redesign critical public services and platforms across government.
Across those experiences, a larger pattern emerged: meaningful public work rarely belongs to one discipline. It requires people who can move between research and delivery, strategy and communication, institutional realities and human needs.
Public Servants is a culmination
Turning experience into a different kind of firm
Public Servants was founded in January 2025 to put those lessons into practice.
We help government agencies, nonprofits, foundations, and other public-interest institutions understand the people they serve, navigate complexity, strengthen their organizations, and turn ambitious ideas into outcomes people can experience.
Our work spans strategy and planning, research and insight, design and delivery, communications, and organizational change. But the disciplines matter less than how they come together: around a real public need, with the right people involved and enough care to make the result useful and lasting.
Our clients aren’t simply looking for vendors. They need partners who understand the nuance, constraints, responsibilities, and possibilities of work in the public interest.
“Founding Public Servants was a commitment—to the people I’ve worked alongside for years, and to the belief that public service can be deeply human and deeply effective at the same time. I’ve seen it firsthand. Working together through some of the hardest days is the only way we make lasting progress.”
–Ashleigh Axios
Building more than a consultancy
Contributing beyond client work
Since our founding, we’ve begun building the kind of practice we want to see more of: one that creates room for inquiry, learning, collaboration, and stewardship alongside delivery.
We invest our own resources in research on the realities facing public leaders. We develop and share frameworks, writing, and practical resources that help people make sense of an evolving field. We create opportunities for emerging practitioners to learn through meaningful public-interest work. And we bring experienced collaborators together around problems where their perspectives can make a difference.
These efforts aren’t separate from our client work. They strengthen it. What we learn through research informs our practice. What we encounter through practice creates new questions worth exploring. And sharing what we learn helps contribute to a stronger ecosystem around public service.
Designed to work differently
Public Servants is a remote-first, distributed firm that brings together collaborators—primarily across the U.S.—around the needs of the work.
We shape teams around each challenge, drawing on the mix of disciplines, experiences, and perspectives the work calls for.
That flexibility allows us to stay focused, expand thoughtfully, and create meaningful opportunities for experienced collaborators and emerging practitioners alike.
How we build the firm is part of the work. We want our operating model to reflect the same clarity, care, adaptability, and stewardship we bring to the institutions we serve.
Consider joining our Talent Network.
How we show up
We’re here to help institutions understand before they act, design with care, communicate with clarity, and build things that can endure.
We bring the perspective of people who have worked inside public institutions and alongside them, who understand both their possibilities and their constraints, and who remain curious about how they can work better.
We are carrying forward a long practice of service and a commitment to keep learning, building, and contributing alongside others.
Read our values and principles.
Looking ahead
Our story is still being written.
We’ll continue to grow it alongside our clients, collaborators, public servants, and the people their work ultimately serves.
Want to explore more of Ashleigh’s leadership journey? Visit Ashleighaxios.com
Want to continue learning about us? About us • Our services
Ready to partner on meaningful change?
See how we support public-interest teams through research, design, strategy, and more.