Carla Crowder is the Executive Director of Alabama Appleseed, where she serves as the organization’s chief strategic officer and voice for its mission, vision, values, and programs.

Carla brings more than two decades of experience, both as a journalist and an attorney, in public policy research, advocacy, and litigation on behalf of marginalized and vulnerable communities.

Prior to joining Appleseed, Carla served as Program and Policy Director at The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham.  There, she oversaw implementation of the nationally-recognized Collaboration Institute and launched multiple initiatives focused on increasing the economic security of single women and their children through workforce development, quality childcare, and family-friendly workplace policy.

Previously, Carla worked as a staff attorney at The Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, where she represented clients sentenced to life without parole as children, clients on Death Row, and was part of teams whose work exonerated two wrongfully convicted Alabama men who were freed after decades behind bars. At EJI, Carla was heavily involved in Alabama prison reform efforts, investigating and documenting abuses at multiple prisons, including St. Clair Correctional Center, where she worked on federal, class-action litigation over unconstitutional violence and abuse.

She spent 16 years as a newspaper reporter, most recently at The Birmingham News, where her work on poverty and prisons in Alabama earned multiple awards, including the Thurgood Marshall Award from the Death Penalty Information Center.

A native of Florence, Carla earned a B.A. in English and History from Huntingdon College in Montgomery.  In 2009, she earned a J.D. from The University of Alabama School of Law with a certificate in Public Interest Law.