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About us
Ascend Strategy Labs leverages decades of deep political, campaign and communications leadership expertise to help mission-driven leaders and organizations achieve unprecedented impact.
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Founded by two accomplished female leaders with deep roots in issue-advocacy and voter engagement, we understand the unique challenges facing today's change-makers. From grassroots advocacy to political campaigns, from emerging nonprofits to established foundations, we design high-impact campaigns and provide the strategic insight and tactical expertise that transforms good intentions into measurable results.
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Our approach is both data-driven and deeply human—because we know that behind every policy change, every dollar raised, and every vote mobilized is a community counting on your success. We don't just develop strategies; we build the systems, skills, and confidence that ensure your mission not only survives but thrives.
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Where mission meets momentum, transformation begins.
THE team
CRISTINA TZINTZUN RAMIREZ
Partner
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez was named “Hero of the New South” by Southern Living Magazine and People of the Year by Tribeza Magazine. Cristina has spent the last twenty years founding and leading some of the most creative organizations and campaigns to raise wages, tackle the climate and student debt crises, and fight for worker and immigrant rights. Her career experience and love for Texas led her to run for statewide office in 2020, giving her an inside look at the complexity and power of engaging and persuading voters at scale.
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Most recently, Cristina served as President of Nextgen America, the nation’s largest youth voting rights organization. Cristina began her social justice career when she was a college student and co-founded Workers Defense Project (WDP), a workers’ rights organization with the mission to win better working conditions for immigrant workers in Texas. She built WDP from a small volunteer project into a statewide organization that was named “one of the most creative organizations for immigrant workers in the country” by The New York Times. She helped lead the organization for over a decade, taking on two of the most powerful special interest groups in Texas – the construction and real estate industries.
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After the 2016 election, when Cristina was 6-months pregnant, she founded Jolt — a Texas-wide organization that lifts up the voice, vote, and issues impacting Latinos. Founded in 2016, Jolt seeks to win the nearly 11 million Latinos living in Texas the power and respect they deserve. Jolt’s work has reached tens of millions of Americans, mobilized thousands to action, and built the leadership of young Latinos across Texas.
Cristina is an author on issues of race, gender and immigration and was a 2020 U.S. Senate candidate. She also taught at the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin and is a Contributor to ABC News.
Beatriz lopez
Partner
Beatriz Lopez is a trusted strategic leader with more than two decades of experience in designing innovative campaigns and founding organizations, building and implementing organizational strategy, managing multimillion-dollar budgets, and positioning organizations as influential voices for critical national issues.
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As Co-Executive Director at Immigration Hub and founder of Catalyze/Citizens, Beatriz spearheaded the creation of the organization's political and communications department from the ground up, architecting political advertising campaigns in battleground states and comprehensive strategic frameworks that successfully influenced national coverage and decision-makers. Under her leadership, she founded and launched the Hub's advocacy arm, Catalyze/Citizens, developing innovative communication strategies and breakthrough research to combat the harms of anti-immigrant disinformation campaigns and unregulated social technology on democracy.
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Beatriz also founded Democracy Power Project, a nonprofit initiative designed to strengthen America's democratic resilience by linking people, policy, and power across diverse social justice movements. She is founder of Democracy Misfits, a new media publication tackling the intersection of democracy, immigration and tech accountability.
Her extensive experience includes leadership roles at the Center for American Progress and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where she developed communications strategies for the Immigrant Justice Campaign and Latino electoral program, creating the innovative iAmerica platform that reached millions of voters in key battleground states. Her diverse background also includes grasstops organizing with Public Citizen and service in the U.S. Peace Corps.
As a thought leader, Beatriz has authored memorandums, editorials, and case studies featured in Washington Post, POLITICO, Bloomberg, NBC, and other publications. She served as a board member of Somos Votantes and as an Executive Advisory Committee member of the CIPC Research Synthesis Project.