Benjamin Fresquez

Ben Fresquez is a senior program manager with the College Excellence Program. He supports the American Talent Initiative, the Transfer Scholars Network, and other innovative programs addressing higher education quality, equity, and efficiency.

Ben’s responsibilities in the American Talent Initiative (ATI) include: supporting the network of high-graduation-rate four-year institutions committed to enrolling and graduating more lower-income students; organizing ATI’s practice-sharing community focused on community college transfer; and collaborating across community colleges and four-year colleges and universities to improve institutional practice.

Ben has experience setting strategy and executing activities for backbone organizations and cross-sector partnerships as a collective impact professional. Before joining Aspen, Ben coordinated major projects for a binational youth engagement initiative across southern New Mexico, west Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Ben holds a B.S. in health promotion from the University of Texas El Paso.

As a collective impact practitioner, Ben has expertise in setting strategy and executing activities for backbone organizations that align cross-sector partnerships under a common agenda to tackle complex social problems. Ben’s work fosters the commitment of partners to shared goals, facilitates research and knowledge sharing to inform institutional practice, and cultivates relationships and the community needed to affect large-scale change.

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Ben coordinated major projects for a binational youth engagement initiative across southern New Mexico, west Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In that role, Ben launched the Borderland Out-of-School Time (BOOST) Network, a collaborative of agencies in the Paso del Norte region working to reduce youth “disconnection” through afterschool and summer programming. Ben has also managed volunteer and community engagement programs for nationally-affiliated non-profit organizations and developed a Volunteer Services Program for a newly-opened pediatric hospital in west Texas. Ben holds a B.S. in health promotion from the University of Texas – El Paso.