Meet the Team
5 Staff Members
22 Board Members
Carla Crowder
Executive Director
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.
Akiesha Anderson
Policy Director
Akiesha Anderson serves as Policy Director at Alabama Appleseed. Her work focuses on policy development, legislative advocacy, coalition building, and engaging with public officials. In her role, she also assists with Appleseed’s legal projects.
As a Montgomery-native, Akiesha received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Alabama State University. She also earned a Master’s in Public Administration from Auburn University-Montgomery and a law degree (along with a Certificate in Government Affairs) from The University of Alabama.
Over the years, she’s had the honor of working with several civil rights organizations, elected officials, a university, and a think tank: the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Human Rights Campaign (HRC, U.S. Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (Al-07), the Montgomery County Commission, UCLA School of Law, and the Williams Institute. She is also a member of several service-oriented organizations including the Blackburn Institute and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Leah Nelson
Research Director
Leah Nelson serves as Research Director at Alabama Appleseed, where she uses stories, data, and information to create white papers, reports, and written advocacy materials to support Appleseed’s campaigns. She is Appleseed’s principal expert on how fines and fees drive poverty and incarceration.
Prior to joining Alabama Appleseed, Leah spent five years in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Middle District of Alabama Federal Defenders, supporting the appeals of death-sentenced individuals seeking ånew trials. Before that, she worked as a research and writing fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, covering white supremacy, nativism, the Patriot movement, and other forms of extremism for SPLC’s Intelligence Project. She has also worked as a journalist covering education issues and New York’s state judiciary.
Leah is a 2006 graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a 2002 graduate of the University of Connecticut. Her work has been published by The Marshall Project, Salon, Alternet, the Intelligence Report, Hatewatch, In These Times, the Montgomery Advertiser, and elsewhere.
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Carla Crowder
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Carla Crowder2020-06-30 15:02:562020-07-01 10:54:05A Disabled Black Veteran with Prescribed Medical Marijuana in His Car Played Air Guitar while Pumping Gas in Alabama. Now He’s Going to Prison.
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Carla Crowder
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Carla Crowder2020-05-29 14:47:302020-06-04 10:10:14Tuscaloosa's "Operation Safe Streets" Makes Tuscaloosa More Dangerous for SomeDana Sweeney
Organizer
Dana Sweeney is a statewide organizer for Alabama Appleseed. His work focuses on the crisis of predatory lending in Alabama, and he is responsible for mobilizing communities across the state in coordinated efforts to curb the exploitative financial practices of predatory lenders.
Prior to joining Alabama Appleseed, Dana worked as a Vote Everywhere Ambassador for The Andrew Goodman Foundation. While working in that capacity, he was selected as a recipient of the 2017 Hidden Heroes Award for leading a successful campaign to eliminate a $60 fee being imposed on thousands of students who wished to vote via absentee ballot at The University of Alabama. Dana also served for several years as the co-founder and director of The Outlet Literacy Initiative, which is a creative writing and poetry performance program for high school students in western-central Alabama.
Dana graduated from The University of Alabama with a B.A. in English in May 2017. While attending school, Dana served as a White House Associate in President Barack Obama’s Office of Correspondence, studied public policy as a PPIA Fellow at Princeton University, and was named a Truman Scholar.
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Dana Sweeney
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Dana Sweeney2019-06-03 14:56:272019-06-03 14:58:50The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Must Protect Consumers
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Carla Crowder
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Carla Crowder2018-10-25 17:42:242018-10-25 17:42:24Public Support for Payday Reform Increases in AlabamaAlex LaGanke
Legal Fellow
Alex LaGanke is Alabama Appleseed’s 2020-2022 Legal Fellow for criminal justice reform. She is a 2020 graduate of Cumberland School of Law and UAB’s JD-MPA joint degree program. Originally from Cullman, Alabama, Alex moved to Birmingham to attend UAB and graduated with bachelor’s degree in International Studies in 2015.
Since moving to Birmingham in 2011, Alex has taken part in community development work as a junior board member, board member, consultant, and volunteer for various local nonprofits addressing systemic poverty and hunger, homelessness, mental health rehabilitation, access to justice, illiteracy, human trafficking, youth education support and job training, voting restoration, domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect. As an advocate for applying best business practices to nonprofit administration, she has been trained by the Alabama Association of Nonprofits in Standards for Excellence® as a former AAN Excellence Intern.
Since graduating from college, Alex has worked as a program coordinator at a local Adult Basic Education center, which amplified her desire to engage in legal reform efforts. She has also worked for Legal Services of Alabama, Baker Donelson as a pro bono fellow, the Bessemer District Attorney’s Office, the EEOC mediation and hearings departments, and the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Alabama as a judicial extern. Additionally, Alex currently sits on the board for CASA of Jefferson County, where she has also volunteered as a CASA for four years.
Appleseed Network
