I've seen Alissa live, and she is indeed quite slow. I suspect this was one factor that kept her back at Worlds last year even though she skated fairly well, given that she was put behind Caro Kostner (very fast), Alena Leonova (sloppy but fast), Yu-Na Kim (fast), Miki Ando (also quite fast).
About Ashley--she has been her own worst enemy for the past couple of seasons with all those 2-foots and not being able to peak at the right time. You won't get much street cred if you can't even make it out of your own Nationals properly.
Just by placement comparisons alone, Ashley's is the U.S Akiko Suzuki.
Akiko - 4th 4th 9th 12th 12th 10th 5th 4th 2nd 4th
Ashley - 3rd 3rd 4th 6th
Akiko obviously saw early success in her early years with two solid 4th place finishes in 2001 and 2002. Obviously we know that Anorexia did her in for two seasons, but even her comeback was a long time coming. As a result, it would take six Japanese nationals (and a medal finish at the 2008 NHK) before she would be taken seriously at the national level (thanks to that fantastic Dark Eyes program).
Likewise Ashley had some early success but has not been able to rise much higher than that. I think Ashley's best decision was to make some serious changes relatively early in her career (I know it seems that she's been in the game FOREVER, but really, as you can see, it's only been about four years). I think Ashley needs to be patient, don't want it too bad and she will get there. It seems that Mr. Nicks is teaching her well on that, judging by her post-interview competition. She as scored in the 109-110 range. This is a good start. Work on the 3F-3T for the next few months then you got it made.
Compare that with Alissa, who ended up, imo, staying way too long with her previous coach. (She did not even medal until her sixth U.S. nationals and then went on a super roller coaster after that).