James White

Senior Program Manager

James White is the senior program manager for Ascend’s leadership initiatives. He plays a central role in program design, technical assistance for Fellows’ action plans, and alumni activation for the Ascend Fellowship. He led Ascend’s learning and action communities on fatherhood and child well-being and served as a lead author in the resulting recommendation reports.

Prior to joining Ascend, he supported a portfolio of programming dedicated to elevating youth voice within the Aspen Institute and beyond and led the team’s strategic communications efforts.

Previously, James worked as a public relations intern at Time Inc., where he supported brand communications efforts across a portfolio of brands including TIME, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated. A native New Orleanian, James holds a B.S. in communication with concentrations in persuasion and social influence and media studies from Cornell University.

Stories featuring James White

We’ve selected four projects from the 2021 Class of Fellows that show impressive potential in both their scope and capacity to address timely issues. 
Ascend FellowshipMay 25, 2023
Text over a landscape of South Africa
Tiana C. McCoy – Senior Associate, Operations and Convenings at Ascend – provides an inside look at the experience of a Fellows Forum.
BlogMay 2, 2023
Through careful and rigorous research, we know that there is a better way to approach child support policy to build strong families and communities.
BlogJanuary 11, 2023
Image caption: Ascend Fellows at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 2018. Pictured left to right: Ann Kalass, Darius Tandon, Kirsten Lodal, Lori Severens, John Hudson III, Myla Calhoun, William Serrata, Dipesh Navsaria, Anne Mosle, Myra Jones-Taylor, FĂ©lix V. Matos RodrĂ­guez, Laurie Miller Brotman, John Annis, Roxane White, Raquel Hatter, Sherece Y. West-Scantlebury, …

Making Black History and Forging Black Futures Read More »

Ascend FellowshipFebruary 23, 2022
The inaugural Aspen Leadership Impact Forum brought Aspen Institute Ascend Fellows and philanthropic leaders who share a commitment to courageous leadership for children and families together with the inaugural cohort of SOARFellows, leaders working to expand opportunities for women and girls.
BlogNovember 15, 2021
As we reimagine public systems and services to work better for families, we have an opportunity to do so in a way that honors the full diversity of family structures, as families themselves define them, and builds upon families’ inherent resilience. This requires an intentional and explicit commitment to applying a gender lens inclusive of …

Bringing Fathers Into Focus for Child & Family Well-Being Read More »

BlogJune 16, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has made more evident than ever the need to transform policies, practice, and systems to build upon the inherent resilience of families – especially those with low incomes and from BIPOC communities. In 2018 – 677,529 children experienced maltreatment in the US. 51 percent of those children were Black, Indigenous, or children …

Investing in Futures Means Investing in Families: Announcing the Two-Generation Prenatal to Three Learning and Action Community Read More »

BlogDecember 9, 2020
Ascend is honored that our Executive Director Anne Mosle has been named to the Holding Co.’s CARE 100 List, a first-of-its-kind list of the people doing the most to re-imagine and re-humanize our care system. We are even more overjoyed to see so many of our Ascend Fellows, Network partners, Parent Advisors, philanthropic partners, and …

Here’s to Warriors and Weavers for Care Read More »

BlogOctober 23, 2020
Several cities, states, and municipalities across the US now use the second Monday in October to honor and celebrate Native American history, cultures, and communities. As America grapples with structural racism and the coronavirus pandemic, Indigenous Peoples’ Day offers us an opportunity to reflect on how Native traditions and teachings can offer guidance on how …

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Is an Opportunity to Reexamine History and Reimagine Our Future Read More »

BlogOctober 12, 2020
This interview is part of the Aspen Institute’s In Focus: Equity in Education multimedia series. Parents across the nation face the impossible choice of going back to work or looking after their children as states phase into reopening without addressing child care. Like so many states, the COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a blow to South …

Child Care is Critical to Getting the Economy Moving Again Read More »

BlogOctober 1, 2020
Black Lives Matter. As a collective of leaders committed to advancing two-generation strategies to end multigenerational poverty, we believe that the only path to that outcome is through a reckoning with our past and present, and a fundamental shift in our institutions. This requires a new social contract to remedy the harms of White supremacy â€“a …

Undo A System of White Supremacy: The Call for a New Social Contract Read More »

BlogJune 29, 2020
In celebration of Father’s Day, the Lurie Children’s Family and Child Health Innovations Program (FCHIP) released the Fathering During a Pandemic report to help guide fathers during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. “Father’s Day reminds us to think about and support the father figures who are important in our lives, and that’s something we should do every day of the …

Seeing Fathers’ Roles in Family Prosperity Clearly in 2020: Equitable Family Leave and Research for Improved Outcomes Read More »

BlogJune 26, 2020
This post, by Aspen Institute senior manager of digital content and communications Kristina Saccone, was originally published on the Aspen Institute‘s website. Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, recognizes an important moment in US history—when nearly a quarter of a million men, women, and children were freed—ending slavery nearly two years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. …

Juneteenth Is a Day of Reflection for All Americans Read More »

BlogJune 19, 2020
Aspen Autumn
Dear Ascend Community: Ascend is committed to the work of anti-racism. Seeing and experiencing week after week what Black people and families go through, and the threat of violence they are subjected to on a daily basis, is completely unacceptable and must end. We stand against this ongoing oppression and the white supremacy that breeds …

Statement and Call to Action: Condemn Police Violence and Structural Racism Read More »

BlogJune 3, 2020
As the hub for breakthrough ideas and collaborations that move children and their parents toward educational success and economic security, Ascend is intensifying its efforts in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic to highlight 2Gen solutions that Ascend Fellows and the Ascend Network have developed over the past decade to help families reach their potential. Ascend is examining how new solutions, …

WEBINAR: Stopping Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorders Where They Start: Prevention and Treatment in Adolescence Read More »

BlogMay 29, 2020

Convenings Featuring James White

Date: June 15, 2022
Location: Live webcast
Please join us for a national release and strategic briefing on Toward a More Equitable Future: A Landscape Analysis of Early Childhood Leadership. This report zeroes in on the future of the early childhood field through the lenses of racial equity...
ConveningJune 15, 2022
Date: June 8, 2021
Location: Virtual (Zoom)
Jessica Seinfeld opens a discussion between two expert and experienced men on what fatherhood looks like in a 2Gen approach, ways to include and center fathers in this work, and the social determinants acting as barriers to fatherhood amongst Black...
ConveningJune 8, 2021