MD, IBCLC
Dr. Ashley Riley comes from a family of medical providers: her father, grandfather, aunt, and uncle are all doctors, her mother and several aunts are nurses, and her sister is currently in med school.
Born in Pittsburgh during her Dad’s residency, Dr. Riley is a former Kids Plus Kid (and patient of Dr. Pai)! At age 5, she and her family moved to Canfield, Ohio. She describes herself as “a bit of a wild child energy-wise,” who kept her parents on their toes and was always on the go: swimming, running, biking, skiing; playing tennis and piano; enjoying choir, theater, and babysitting — her first job, and the one that made her fall in love with taking care of kids.
Dr. Riley graduated from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, where she earned a B.S. in Biology and played Division III tennis, then went home to earn her M.D. at Northeast Ohio Medical University. She completed her residency at Akron Children’s Hospital, where she was named Chief Resident in Pediatrics and helped develop a wellness program for residents that she’s proud to say is still in place today.
Dr. Riley met her husband, Shane, on a running track at Kent State University, when they were both training for the 2013 Pittsburgh Half Marathon. They were married in May 2016, and soon ran their first full marathon — in Pittsburgh, of course! They love exploring all the parks and running trails in the region, especially Raccoon Creek State Park and the Montour Trail.
A self-proclaimed “total plant nerd,” Dr. Riley loves gardening and growing exotic fruit plants. She currently has orchids, a passion fruit vine, a guava tree, a tangerine tree, a coffee tree, a lemon tree, and some baby cocoa trees. When she’s not taking care of her plants, or of kids, she’s taking care of her two cats, Bonky and Pan, who she found and rescued from an abandoned litter.
Dr. Riley has always been a voracious reader, so her favorite childhood toys were her books. She loved all sorts of novels and book series, but her favorites were her collection of all the Calvin & Hobbes books. She and her Dad used to read them together all the time, and she always thought it would be pretty awesome to have a pet tiger.
To learn more about Dr. Riley, check out her installment of Kids Plus Q&A: