Leadership Strategy Grounded in Research and Real-World Experience
Led by Dr. Ana María López Caldwell, our firm helps executives and organizations navigate growth, complexity, and change by strengthening the leadership capacity, organizational systems, and clarity needed to move forward. Our approach combines strategic advisory, leadership development, research, and practical implementation.
Meet the Founder, Dr. Ana María López Caldwell
Dr. Ana María López Caldwell is a leadership strategist, organizational consultant, researcher, and former nonprofit Executive Director with more than 15 years of experience across nonprofit and education leadership.
Her approach is shaped by firsthand experience leading organizations through complexity and years of advising executives, leadership teams, and boards. She understands that what appears to be an individual leadership challenge is often connected to a larger organizational question: how decisions are made, responsibility is distributed, systems support the work, and leaders are equipped to focus on what matters most.
Today, Dr. Ana María brings together executive advisory, organizational development, research, and strategic facilitation to help leaders build stronger organizations while navigating growth and change.
Originally from Colombia, Dr. Ana María works across cultures and is fluent in Spanish and English and conversational in Portuguese. She is the founder of the Latino Executive Nonprofit Study (LENS), a national research initiative examining the experiences and organizational conditions shaping Latino nonprofit executive leadership.
Dr. Ana María holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University and is an ICF-credentialed executive coach.
Research That Informs Our Work
Dr. Ana María is the founder of the Latino Executive Nonprofit Study (LENS), a national research initiative examining the experiences of Latino nonprofit executives and the organizational conditions that shape their leadership.
LENS explores questions of leadership capacity, organizational infrastructure, governance, fundraising, and emerging challenges such as AI readiness. The research strengthens our understanding of what leaders need not only to lead effectively, but to build organizations that can sustain their impact.
Insights from LENS inform our broader thinking about leadership, organizational capacity, and the systems leaders need around them to succeed.
Our Philosophy
We believe leadership and organizational effectiveness are deeply connected. Leaders cannot succeed without the right systems around them, and strong systems depend on people who have the clarity, capacity, and accountability to use them well.
That is why we rarely look at a leadership or organizational challenge through a single lens. We consider the people, structures, culture, decision-making, and operating realities shaping the organization.
Our work is research-informed, culturally grounded, and designed to create solutions that are both strategic and practical.
Meet the Team
Our team brings together practitioners with distinct expertise, professional backgrounds, and lived experiences across leadership development, organizational strategy, facilitation, operations, research, and change management. That diversity is intentional. Complex organizations benefit from multiple perspectives, and we build teams around the needs of each engagement. While our expertise differs, our standard does not. Every member of our team operates as part of one unified firm, grounded in the same commitment to rigorous thinking, thoughtful preparation, trusted partnership, and an exceptional client experience. This allows us to bring the right expertise to each challenge while providing the consistency, care, and strategic quality our clients expect throughout the engagement.
Lauren Trout
Lauren (they/them) is a restorative justice practitioner and subject matter expert who works in education, justice, and community sectors to provide training, coaching, and technical support. Trout’s work focuses on equity, climate and culture, conflict resolution, harm prevention, and collaborative processes for organizing and decision-making. Trout has served as a keynote panelist and featured speaker and has presented in webinars and at conferences around the country. Presently, Trout is Technical Assistance Provider at WestEd, an education consulting agency. Trout’s body of work as an author and project lead focuses on climate and safety, equity, systems of well-being, and initiative implementation integrity. Trout lives in New Orleans and is passionate about collective organizing, healing, and visioning.
Malena Data Ernani
Malena is an Associate Consultant and Director of Strategy & Systems at Dr. Ana Maria Consulting, where she helps develop operational systems and organizational strategy for the firm and its partner organizations. Born in Margarita Island, Venezuela and raised in Northern California, she is a Venezuelan-Argentinian first-generation immigrant whose lived experience shapes how she approaches organizational systems and leadership. Her work focuses on helping organizations design clear, functional systems that support people and relationships, not just processes. She helps organizations build systems designed to serve, and not burden, marginalized communities.
Diana Alejandra Garcia Guerrero
Diana is a startup strategist advisor at Dr. Ana Maria Consulting, where she supports innovation, business development, and growth initiatives. Raised in Tijuana, Mexico and shaped by Mexican–U.S.–Nordic culture, she brings a perspective grounded in digital entrepreneurship, practical business execution and system design. Her lived experience informs her approach to building and scaling ventures, emphasizing clarity, structure, and action over theory. She supports organizations by developing practical growth strategies, guiding early-stage business models, and implementing systems that turn ideas into operational companies, helping teams achieve sustainable growth and market validation.
Fernanda Alonso
Fernanda is a Client Experience & Digital Strategy Associate at Dr. Ana Maria Consulting, where she supports User Experience (UX) and Client Experience (CX) strategy, as well as digital design and marketing strategy. Raised in Indianapolis and shaped by her experience as a first-generation Mexican-American, she brings a perspective grounded in cultural empathy, a people-centered approach to design and connection, and insight into how identity and culture shape user experiences. Her lived experience informs her approach to digital and user-centered work, emphasizing inclusive design, emotional intelligence, and accessibility.
She is especially passionate about designing through a decolonizing lens, centering people, culture, and equity in every interaction. Fernanda supports organizations through web design and user experience strategy, helping teams create optimized, accessible, and meaningful digital experiences.
Experience That Shapes Our Work
Years of leadership and organizational experience
Executives and
organizations advised
Clients who returned or
expanded their engagement
Let's Start a Conversation
If your organization is navigating growth, change, or a leadership capacity challenge, let’s start with what you’re working toward.
We’ll use the conversation to understand the challenge, clarify what the organization needs, and determine whether our approach is the right fit.
