Georgia Mjartan

Columbia, South Carolina

Georgia Mjartan is the president and CEO of Central Carolina Community Foundation.

In her previous role, Georgia served as executive director of South Carolina First Step, a state agency and nonprofit committed to ensuring that all of South Carolina’s children are prepared for success in school. As the leader of the state’s Early Childhood Advisory Council, with nonprofit affiliates in every county, Georgia Mjartan linked public, private and nonprofit systems to ensure whole families are supported in their efforts to become successful in school, work and life. Previously, she served for 12 years as the Executive Director of Our House, a nationally-recognized social services agency in Arkansas that successfully moved homeless and near-homeless families and individuals out of extreme poverty by taking a two-generation approach. She was a George Mitchell Scholar, graduating from the University of Ulster (UK) with a MSc. in Political Communication and Public Affairs. She is a graduate of the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program.

My Truth

Services and systems that are disconnected and difficult to navigate so often provide tremendous barriers to families and children in their efforts to move out of poverty and toward economic stability. Siloed interventions in the realm of early childhood, employment, or adult education do not have the long-term impact and leveraging effect that taking a two-generation, an integrated approach can have. In my work on the front-lines for over a decade developing, piloting and sharing the model of a two-generation approach to ending family and child homelessness, I saw the measurable impact that a holistic approach can have.

Stories featuring Georgia Mjartan

Group photo in Aspen, CO
am delighted to share a love note in the form of Ascend’s 2023 Impact and Inspiration Report. In it, you will see how by making the most of the ca...
PublicationFebruary 14, 2024
We are pleased to share Ascend at the Aspen Institute’s newest report – Reimagining Child Welfare and Realizing a Networked Approach to F...
PublicationApril 10, 2023
Group of Ascend Fellows at Wind Cave National Park
My heart is filled with love and gratitude for the courageous community of leaders our Ascend at the Aspen Institute team works with everyday.  And I...
PublicationFebruary 14, 2023
This interview is part of the Aspen Institute’s In Focus: Equity in Education multimedia series. Parents across the nation face the impossible choic...
BlogOctober 1, 2020
Physical and mental health and well-being are core components of the two-generation approach that builds family well-being by intentionally and simult...
BlogJuly 22, 2020
Kwame AnkuChairman and CEOBlack Star Fund Sacramento, CAMy Vision – The problem I am focusing on solving is breaking the economic disparity...
Ascend FellowshipJune 19, 2019
2018 Ascend Fellows
NEWS RELEASE Contact: Lindsay Broyhill Ascend at the Aspen Institute Tel: 202.721.5596 Lindsay.broyhill@aspeninstitute.org Prestigious Aspen Institute...
Press ReleasesSeptember 6, 2018

Convenings Featuring Georgia Mjartan

Location: Virtual
As a nation, we have realized that we can no longer tolerate the racial, gender, and social inequities that have shaped our country. Long before today’s unprecedented energy for change, there were leaders who were laying the foundation. Three of...
ConveningSeptember 29, 2021