Ali Carella
Senior Consultant
DEI
Economic Equality
Education/ Youth
Immigrant Rights
Social Impact
Social Justice/ Advocacy/ Policy
American Lung Association
BUILDing for Growth Program with the Ford Foundation
Helping Hand
Holyoke Health Center
Justice for Migrant Women
National Partnership for New Americans
Rung for Women
Sphinx
Tapestry
YWCA Hamilton
Meet Ali,
one of our Senior Consultants.
Ali Carella (she/her) brings more than 15 years of experience as a social scientist and nonprofit leader across the nonprofit, academic, and philanthropic sectors. Drawing on a deep background in equity‑focused community research and organizational learning, she helps mission-driven organizations design strategies to increase impact and revenue that are both visionary and practical — translating complex challenges into clear pathways for change.
Ali specializes in strategy development, impact measurement, business planning, capacity building, leadership development, and organizational culture — particularly with organizations advancing social justice, immigrant rights, and community well-being. Before joining La Piana, she held several leadership and research roles at Heartland Alliance in Chicago, including Associate Director of Quality and Performance Improvement and Senior Project Manager of Evidence-Based Learning at the Social IMPACT Research Center. Earlier, she worked with the International Rescue Committee and the U.S. Department of State as an English Language Fellow in Ecuador. Ali is highly proficient in Spanish.
An experienced facilitator, Ali combines a scholar’s rigor with a practitioner’s pragmatism. Her doctoral research at the University of Illinois at Chicago examined the literacies of undocumented youth in U.S. detention centers — a study that continues to inform her approach to equity, inclusion, and systems change.
Learn more about Ali in this La Piana Consulting staff interview.
🎓 Education
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University of Illinois at Chicago ‒ Ph.D., Education: Literacy, Language, and Culture
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Portland State University ‒ M.Ed., Secondary: Language Arts
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University of Barcelona ‒ Spanish Language and Latin American Literature
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University of Kansas ‒ B.A., English and Socio-Cultural Anthropology
✏️ Select Publications
- New Leader Toolkit
- From Metrics to Meaning: Helping Nonprofits Measure and Communicate Impact
- After the Restructure: Leading Through the Human Side of Budget Cuts
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How the Ford Foundation Helped Grantees With an Unusual Problem: a Surge of Cash (Authored by Sono Motoyama, Chronicle of Philanthropy)
- How Community Foundations are Showing Up Right Now: Trends, Tensions, and Strategic Considerations for the Philanthropic Sector
- Interview with Steven Renderos of MediaJustice and Hannah Sassaman of People’s Tech
- Interview with Fatimeh Pahlavan and G. Sequane Lawrence of Revolution Institute
- 5 Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make With Data and How to Avoid Them (Workshop)
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Tools & Methodologies to Assess Organizational Culture & Take Action (Workshop)
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2023 Forecast: Uncertain Future Amid Inflation and a Potential Recession
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Access to Secure Choice: Addressing the Barriers to Retirement Savings for Illinois Workers (Social Impact Research Center, Heartland Alliance)
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Cycle of Risk: The Intersection of Poverty, Violence, and Trauma (Social Impact Research Center, Heartland Alliance)
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The Gender Disadvantage: Why Inequity Persists (Social Impact Research Center, Heartland Alliance)
“I am committed to equity and energized by the ability to help kind and smart people solve big social problems… Most solutions are out there – it is my job to create the space to thoughtfully and collaboratively help organizations discuss and clarify those solutions to bring them to a place of feasible implementation.”