Dr. Ashburn is professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, and a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Director of the Penn Pain Medicine Center and was named to the Penn Academy of Master Clinicians in 2014. Dr. Ashburn is also a Senior Policy Advisor with the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President.

Dr. Ashburn completed his undergraduate training at Auburn University in physics, his MPH at the University of Utah, his MBA at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and his medical training at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. He completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of South Alabama Medical Center, and a fellowship in pain medicine at the University of Utah. He is board certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Management, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine through the American Board of Anesthesiology, and in Addiction Medicine through the American Board of Preventive Medicine.