Enchanted and Inspired

The power of place is a key driver in how Ascend is transforming the landscape of leadership. It has compelled Ascend to convene Fellows in places ranging from South Africa to Alaska, and it is part of what makes our return trips to the Aspen campus in Colorado so meaningful.

“What I think is most special is when we partner with our Fellows, funders, and community leaders, we go into a place and we take and share with awe and humility the best of what the Aspen Institute and Ascend at the Aspen Institute can offer,” says Anne Mosle, Ascend’s founder and executive director. “But most importantly, we learn, because it’s in learning and curiosity that we have the chance to forge new paths.”

For the last several years, New Mexico has been a particularly special place for our community of leaders. In 2022 and 2023, Ascend convened Parent Advisors and community leaders in Albuquerque to better meet the needs of young families in both the state and the 19 Pueblos among 23 federally-recognized Tribes. In 2024, Ascend Fellows gathered in Taos for a Fellows Forum. These experiences have left an indelible mark on Ascend’s community of leaders. 

“We have an opportunity to lean into the assets, the cultural strengths, and the power of what is special in this land of enchantment,” says Anne.

In the city of Taos, it’s easy to be transported. From the captivating adobe architecture to the sweeping vistas courtesy of the Taos Mountains to the art galleries on seemingly every corner, the city of only 6,400 residents can take your breath away — sometimes literally, given its perch nearly 7,000 feet above sea level. 

But behind that beauty lies a more nuanced past and present.

“Taos is very unique,” says Mayor Pascual Maestas, a native Taoseño and a 2023 Ascend Fellow. “We see the dichotomy that exists across the world right here in a microcosm. We have rich and poor. We have cultures that have been here since time immemorial, cultures that have been here for 400 years, and cultures that have been here for 100 years, and we’re all trying to figure out how to get along in this place we call Taos.”

That history made Taos the perfect place to host the seventh cohort of Ascend Fellows in the fall of 2024. Together with Ascend, Pascual co-hosted the cohort’s third Fellows Forum with the hopes that his city, where his family has lived for more than 500 years, could leave a lasting impact on his co-Fellows. 

“This is a place that I hope my cohort can learn something from, reflect, and think about how what’s happening in Taos mirrors what’s happening around the world,” says Pascual. “And maybe it can give them ideas about how to best approach their unique problems in their places.”

The carefully curated experience included conversations with community leaders, sharing conversations over meals that reflected the city’s rich Mexican and Native history, and engaging with public art. But the most profound experience for many Fellows was visiting Taos Pueblo. 

With roots that date back more than 1,000 years, Taos Pueblo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America. Its stunning, centuries-old structures and rich cultural tradition has withstood attempted conquest, occupation, and land seizure, resulting in a community and culture that persists. 

“Being welcomed into those homes and breaking bread with the residents, it filled my cup,” says Richard. “It filled me with strength. It’s something that I’m going to take back to my home community about the power of community, the resilience of community, the survival of community in the face of tremendous odds against them.” 

Fellows were also inspired by the collaborative spirit of leaders in Taos.

“I really enjoyed the panel of community leaders that we spoke with,” says Ascend Fellow Dr. India Ornelas, professor at the University of Washington Department of Health Systems and Population Health. “Just seeing how the Latino and the Native American community leaders are working together, and how they have such strong relationships — it’s through that solidarity that they can make a lot of social change.”

Those strong relationships that India identified reflect Taos’s seven generations ethos.

“In Taos, we often use the phrase ‘the next seven generations’, and think about how the decisions that we make today are going to impact not just our kids and our grandkids, people who we are directly connected to in our own lives, but how our decisions are going to affect the people who are seven generations out from us, the people who we will never know, yet they are going to be impacted by our decisions,” explains Pascual. “And we’re thinking about how our ancestors, seven generations ago, lived their life and preserved our culture back then so that way we could have our place today.”