The Drumline: Leaders Moving Solutions Forward

Forward With Families is Ascend’s nationwide effort to elevate proven solutions, invest in innovative leaders, and connect partners across sectors to create real change for families in the areas they say are most important:

• Affordability – the ability to meet daily needs without constant crisis
• Mobility – real pathways to opportunity and advancement
• Security – stability that allows families to plan for the future

At the heart of this work are Ascend Fellows  – a community of 182 values-driven leaders with an unwavering commitment to our shared goal of intergenerational prosperity and family well-being. 

Earlier this month, Ascend celebrated the graduation of the 2024 Ascend Fellows – a cohort of 22 leaders who call themselves “The Drumline.”

Each Ascend Fellowship cohort chooses a name that reflects its collective spirit and experience. Inspired by a Fellowship Forum in New Orleans and the city’s second line tradition – where the drumline sets the rhythm, brings people together, and moves a community forward – our 2024 cohort embraced and embodied their chosen name.

• Darneshia Allen (ZERO TO THREE) is aligning efforts across eight states from Colorado to New Mexico to Arkansas to advance coordinated care for the youngest families and translate “best and next practice” into pragmatic policy solutions that strengthen family well-being.
  
• Shimica Gaskins (End Child Poverty CA, powered by GRACE) is leading the charge to implement HOPE accounts that give young people in foster care and those impacted by COVID a pathway to build wealth and long-term security.
  
• Jennifer Wells (Kindred Futures) is advancing guaranteed income for kinship caregivers across Georgia and expanding throughout the south, providing needed financial support to families who too often are excluded from traditional systems.
  
• Dr. Sarah Kuriakose (New York State Office of Mental Health) prioritizes incorporating youth and family voice across New York’s mental health system, including a youth-driven initiative to train every 10th grader in the state to support each other’s mental health.  
  
• Dr. Teresa Granillo (AVANCE) embedded Head Start into a public school campus in Texas, creating a scalable early childhood model that works for families.
  
• Jamal Berry (Educare DC) is building new pathways into the early childhood workforce by training entry-level educators and parents, strengthening quality while expanding economic mobility opportunities.
  
• Demetrius Starling (Kresge Foundation, formerly Michigan Department of Human Services) advanced an infant-centered child welfare model in partnership with the Michigan Federation for Children and Families – strengthening family stability, improving staff retention, and building bipartisan momentum for statewide adoption. His work is featured in this Forward With Families Michigan Solutions video, which you can watch below.

“At this moment, the country is searching for solutions that improve the lives of children and families in real and lasting ways. The Ascend Drumline Fellows are an intellectually fierce community of cross-sector leaders with the imagination, integrity, and innovation needed to make change happen,” said Anne Mosle, Vice President, Aspen Institute, and Founder and Executive Director, Ascend. 

Ascend is not only supporting and connecting leaders, but also actively investing in and amplifying a new kind of leadership: leaders who are grounded in community, guided by family voice, and equipped to move solutions from idea to impact. 

That commitment comes to life through the Ascend Fellowship Impact Fund, which provides catalytic support to Fellows advancing bold, family-centered solutions across the country. Stay tuned to see what change capital looks like in action as Ascend gets set to announce this year’s Impact Fund awardees – leaders who are accelerating change in their communities and demonstrating what’s possible when we invest in the people closest to the solutions.

“Change capital, at its core, is about unlocking greater potential – through imagination, collaboration, and commitment to our values,” said Mosle. “The future families deserve will not be built by any one leader or organization. It will be built by a new generation of leaders – working across sectors, rooted in community, and committed to results – who are choosing to lead together.”