Biography
Dr. Ali Webb recently returned from an assignment with the Constitutional Court of Kosovo as a Fulbright Specialist where she worked with the judges and across all staff functions on issues of leadership development and internal communications. She teaches how to lead across difference, strategic philanthropy, advocacy, and public policy at the graduate level at the Ford School of Policy at the University of Michigan and the School of Professional Studies, Nonprofit Management MS, at Columbia University. Ali has also developed a leadership curriculum at the Said Business School at Oxford University and has taught In Asia and Africa. She is also published in her areas of expertise, with multiple articles around governance and equity.
Ali worked at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for 19 years, one of the largest U.S. charitable foundations, where her last role was as Director of Michigan Programming, leading a team of 21 people and an annual grantmaking budget of $75 million. She now leads Ali Webb Strategies, a consulting firm based in Virginia, that advises leaders and advances strategies that help organizations bridge the gap between expectations and outcomes using a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. Her primary consulting is with national foundations, their CEOs, international businesses, trustees, and staff around organizational development and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Prior to the Kellogg Foundation, Ali headed up a 116-person Public Affairs unit at the United States Department of Agriculture. Ali served as a key member of the Agriculture Secretary’s sub-cabinet. She was also Communications Director for The Nature Conservancy, working with the board and CEO. She served as political director for the League of Conservation Voters where she worked with members of Congress, scoring their environmental records. She also served as the press secretary for the Mayor of Los Angeles.
Education
- Michigan State University, Ph.D.
- Harvard University, M.P.A.
- Stanford University, B.A.
Courses Taught
- Applied Philanthropy Project I
Publications
- Harris, K., Webb, A., & Fernandez, S. (2022, April 4). What's Required to Diversify Big Green? Nonprofit Quarterly.
- Harris. K. & Webb. A. (2020, January 30). Voices from the Field: 6 Leadership Imperatives for Philanthropy, Centered on Racial Equity. Nonprofit Quarterly.