Asya Howlette is a strategic systems leader and community-rooted advocate whose career sits at the intersection of bold policy, equitable investment, and real outcomes for children and families across Louisiana.
As Chief of Staff at the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, Howlette brings over a decade of field-tested expertise to one of the state’s most consequential policy arenas. Her work is defined by a rare ability to translate grassroots insight into executive strategy — building the infrastructure, partnerships, and political will needed to move systems at scale.
Prior to joining the Institute, Howlette served as Director of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Office of Youth and Families for the City of New Orleans, where she shaped some of the city’s most forward-looking investments in children and communities. She championed and helped drive the passage of the $21M annual Early Childhood Education Millage, expanding publicly funded childcare seats for over a thousand working families, and led its implementation from the Mayor’s office. She stewarded New Orleans’ first-ever Guaranteed Income Program for opportunity youth, alongside dedicated community partners on the ground, built the city’s inaugural Youth Data Hub to bring transparency to public investments in youth development, and expanded a healing-centered diversion program that achieved a 94% public safety rate among justice-involved youth.
Howlette holds a Master of Science in Education from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Hampton University. A proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, she is also an alumna of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leaders Network, the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute, and Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans.
Whether she’s designing citywide data systems, stewarding multi-million dollar public investments, or building coalitions across sectors, Howlette brings the same conviction: that the most powerful systems change happens when community voice and executive strategy finally speak the same language.