The Aspen Institute

Marjorie Sims is the managing director of Ascend at the Aspen Institute. In her role, Marjorie works closely with the executive director on the strategic direction of the program’s vision, leads content development related to Ascend’s areas of expertise, and oversees the development and implementation of all operations in support of achieving team goals.

Marjorie has more than 20 years of experience in advancing the status of women and families at local, state, national, and international levels, as well as in expanding women’s roles in leadership positions within philanthropy. Before joining Ascend in 2018, she served as program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with a specific focus on family economic security programs and managed a $65M grant portfolio. Prior to joining the Kellogg Foundation, Marjorie held the positions of chief operating officer, interim president, and vice president of programs and operations at the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, where she helped launch Stepping Stones, a $5 million, multi-year, regional initiative to increase the income and assets of women-headed families. In addition, Marjorie served as the executive director of the California Women’s Law Center and as a policy analyst with the International Center for Research on Women. She is a co-founder of Women’s Policy, Inc., an organization that emerged from the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues to provide unbiased analyses and educational briefings about federal legislation affecting women and families.

Marjorie lends her insights and expertise through a number of roles with external partners:

• Chair on the board of directors for All Our Kin;
• Advisor to the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) National Advisory Committee on State and Federal Systems Alignment to Improve Whole Family Approaches to Economic Mobility;
• Advisor to the Transformative Consumer Research Executive Leadership and Social Impact Council;
• Advisor to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Ready to Learn initiative;
  Advisor to the Measuring SUCCESS Project: Technical Working Group.