Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program

The Aspen Institute Latinos and Society (AILAS) Program seeks to empower Latino communities and promote long-term economic growth and resiliency. We have four core initiatives:

• Scholarships for Latinos to participate in Aspen Institute leadership programs
• Aspen Latino Business and Entrepreneurship Initiative
• Research on the Latino Inclusion in the Digital Economy
• The Aspen Economic State of Latinos in America

We harness the Institute’s convening power to change the narrative about American Latinos, sharing Latino economic contributions and how these strengthen our nation’s global competitiveness and promote prosperity for all Americans.

Since its founding in 2015, Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program (AILAS) organizes its strategy, programming, and objectives around the following guiding principles:

Mission: To identify, promote, and catalyze ideas and solutions that foster greater opportunity for American Latinos, enabling a more prosperous and inclusive America for all.

Values: Inclusion, shared learning, cross-sector collaboration, diversity of perspectives, co-creation.

Our approach is both grassroots and grass-tops. AILAS’s commitment to diversity of thought and inclusive growth engages a broad spectrum of diverse local and national decision-makers and subject-matter experts. We galvanize leaders to action, strengthening networks at every level of society to promote public and corporate policy that economically advances and maximizes the potential of Latino communities.

Our research, summits, and community of practice of subject matter experts inform our work as we seek to promote access to opportunity and Latino economic mobility. Building a pipeline of American Latino thought leaders throughout the Aspen Institute through the Ricardo Salinas Scholarship and Woody and Gayle Hunt Aspen Institute Fellowship.

We understand the diversity and nuances that exist within the Latino diaspora. We bring a racial equity lens to our ecosystem-building work, ensuring proposed solutions are data-driven, community-informed, and culturally relevant. Our programs influence a positive narrative change of American Latinos so that the media, policymakers, and decision-makers understand and appreciate the vast contributions Latinos make to the U.S. economy and society.

We believe that the transformed perceptions of those with the power to do something, along with a better understanding of concrete things they can do about it, will incentivize them to make better-informed decisions and catalyze concrete actions to include and improve the circumstances of Latinos at all levels of society.