What if the best preparation for a career in development was never having a five-year plan at all? In this episode of Breaking Ceilings Breaking Ground, Molly McCabe and Jill Ferrari sit down with Ashley Terry, President of Development at Pivot Project in Oklahoma City. Ashley's path into real estate was anything but traditional: she started out as a hairdresser before a single book changed the direction of her life. Ashley leads development strategy and execution across Pivot's portfolio, with a focus on urban infill, mixed-use, and adaptive reuse in downtown Oklahoma City. Her work spans hospitality, historic rehabilitation, retail, housing, and public-private infrastructure. But she's less interested in isolated projects than in what she calls "building pieces of a city": the ten interdependent parts that all have to work together to make a place function. It's a generalist's superpower, and Ashley leans all the way into it. In the course of a single day she might move from historic tax credits to re-tenancy to horizontal infrastructure, connecting dots that usually live in separate conversations. Before Pivot, Ashley spent more than a decade at Wheeler District, a 150-acre urban infill project in Oklahoma City. She joined in a flexible "do whatever needed to be done" role and grew into Vice President of Development, with work spanning placemaking, entitlements, infrastructure, vertical development, operations, and strategy. Watching a project evolve from an empty field into a neighborhood where people live, work, and gather gave her a rare feedback loop: and taught her that small decisions have a long tail. She also shares one of the best stories in the episode: a small playground placed between a restaurant and a brewery that turned into a family epicenter, with friends driving 30 minutes from the suburbs just to use the patio. The idea came from a 2017 team trip to Copenhagen, where the team biked the city and observed how families were woven into everyday public life. Ashley defines sustainability in a way that will stick with you: does a project actually work over time? Can a building adapt to a second- or fourth-generation user? Can it remain financially and operationally sound long after the original development team is gone? She also tells the story of Western Gateway Elementary School: handed an idea in 2017 with no education background and told to make it happen. She broke ground in March 2020, navigated charter authorization and curriculum-driven design decisions (restrooms in every classroom, for starters), and calls it her favorite project because she could see children learning in the finished building. Throughout the conversation, Ashley keeps returning to a people-first lens shaped by Jan Gehl's Life Between Buildings and Jane Jacobs. Developers create the framework for community, she says: but they can't manufacture it. The best work leaves room for people to make a place their own. Connect with AshleyEmail: ashley@pivotproject.comWebsite: pivotproject.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashleynterryPivot Project is actively seeking partners: architects, lenders, and investors for its development pipeline. Learn more about Breaking Ceilings Breaking Ground: https://breakingceilingsbreakingground.com/ Subscribe, follow, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's ready to jump in and figure it out.
