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.Â
Tiana C. McCoy – Senior Associate, Operations and Convenings at Ascend – provides an inside look at the experience of a Fellows Forum.
Through careful and rigorous research, we know that there is a better way to approach child support policy to build strong families and communities.
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, …
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.
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 »
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 »
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 –a …
Undo A System of White Supremacy: The Call for a New Social Contract Read More »
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 …
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 »
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 »
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, …
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...
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...