Alia Ornstein

Alia is an operations professional with decades of experience leading, counseling, and advocating for people in the workplace. The daughter of an immigrant and a high school science teacher, Alia was raised to believe that we all carry a responsibility to support the people and planet around us, and she believes that success is measured by the impact we have on others. As such, she has centered her career on advocacy and community building.

With an emphasis on representing impact-oriented organizations, Alia has worked with and counseled Fortune 500 companies, scrappy startups, incarcerated individuals, community-based nonprofits, and the most ambitious hands-in-the-soil changemakers. She cares deeply about cultivating strong teams and people-first, inclusive workplaces, and she is adept at doing so while helping companies thrive operationally.

Alia holds a BA from Harvard and a JD from the University of Southern California – where she served on the Board of the Public Interest Law Foundation. Among other professional roles, Alia has worked as a Labor & Employment Attorney at Winston & Strawn, LLP, where she specialized in non-discrimination matters and litigated in federal court. Alia was also the Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel of Brooklyn Grange – a rooftop farming, urban landscaping, and events company – where she spent more than a decade doing mission-driven work to green our cities and catalyze a movement for a more sustainable future.

Outside of work, Alia prioritizes time spent with her family, supporting her local public schools, coaching youth sports, advocating for climate and equity, and laughing often with friends and family and especially her two children.