Alexa Smith joined Fistula Foundation as president in September 2024. In this role, she provides expertise and leadership to help achieve the Foundation’s ambitious goals. When the current CEO, Kate Grant, steps down in 2025, Alexa will assume the role of CEO.
Alexa brings to the Foundation more than 20 years of strategic leadership, fundraising acumen, and proven results. Before joining the team, she served as director of major gifts at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s premier civil rights organization. There, she led the major gifts program nationwide.
She is a former corporate lawyer and hedge fund executive with a passion for international development and advancing human rights, which began with a summer abroad in Togo, West Africa, as an undergraduate. Alexa has used her expertise in management, organizational development, and strategic and business planning to help launch organizations to outsized success.
Alexa has also served as a director and advisor to several organizations, including the New York City Parks Foundation and The Feminist Press. She currently serves on the board of the UC Law San Francisco Foundation (formerly UC Hastings). Alexa holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences/International Relations from UC Berkeley, a juris doctor degree from UC Law San Francisco, and a master’s of laws degree from Harvard Law School.