Lelaine Bigelow Named 2025 Aspen Ascend Fellow

The Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality (GCPI) is proud to announce that Executive Director Lelaine Bigelow has been selected as a 2025 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow.
The Aspen Ascend Fellowship brings together a diverse, cross-sector cohort of leaders who are reimagining and reshaping systems to improve well-being for children, families, and communities. Since its founding in 2012, the Fellowship has built a network of more than 180 changemakers nationwide who are advancing bold solutions to foster intergenerational mobility and opportunity.

As an Ascend Fellow, Lelaine will focus on advancing a policy agenda that centers women of color in efforts to combat poverty—not as an afterthought, but as a powerful and strategic pathway to lasting economic well-being for all families. This focus builds on her leadership at GCPI, where she has championed research-driven solutions to address poverty and inequality.

GCPI Welcomes New Policy Experts to Tackle Urgent Threats & Improve Economic Well-Being

Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality (GCPI) welcomes a new Faculty Advisor and seven new staff and fellows who bring deep expertise across labor, tax, cash, housing, care, and digital equity. As economic insecurity grows and key protections come under threat, this expanded team will advance bold, evidence-based solutions that support working families and promote racial and gender equity. GCPI is growing to meet the moment—delivering actionable ideas to ensure people can meet their needs, care for their families, and live with dignity.

An Agenda for Economic Well-Being

An America Without Poverty Is Possible: GCPI’s Agenda for Economic Well-Being reflects our vision for a nation where people have the freedom and resources to care for themselves and their loved ones. In this future, economic opportunity is a right, hardship and instability are the exception, and children have what they need to reach their full potential. That is the American dream.

Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality Becomes Two Distinct Centers

For nearly ten years, the Center on Poverty & Inequality has housed two initiatives: the Initiative on Gender Justice & Opportunity and the Economic Security & Opportunity Initiative. Given the unique focus of each initiative, the respective efforts have restructured as standalone Centers, enabling future growth of their work

Equity Through Engagement

To advance child health equity in California, The Children’s Partnership, the California Children’s Trust, and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality launched The Equity Through Engagement (ETE) project. This project examines opportunities to integrate community partnerships and interventions into California’s Medi-Cal financing and delivery systems to advance child health equity, including through addressing social drivers of health (SDOHs). 

Celebrating Indi

Join us in celebrating the impact and tenure of Indi Dutta-Gupta at GCPI, as he prepares to embark on a new chapter in the fight against poverty and inequality.