Alison Rand is a design leader, strategist, and author whose work explores the intersections of purpose, equity, and organizational change. Her debut book, Sentido: Finding Sense and Purpose in Design Leadership (The MIT Press, 2025), weaves personal history with professional insight to reimagine how leaders create spaces of clarity, belonging, and resilience in times of constant change.

Alison is also the co-creator and host of NCOMMON, a podcast that extends the themes of Sentido into conversation, bringing together voices from across design and beyond to explore how luck, lineage, and lived experience shape leadership.

Over the course of her career, Alison has held roles as a designer, strategist, and operator, often serving as a translator between disciplines that talk past one another. She has led design operations at organizations ranging from global consultancies to technology companies, partnering with leaders including John Maeda to advance inclusive, systemic approaches to design at scale.

Her work is guided by a belief that leadership is less about control than about uncovering the natural flow of change—an approach that makes the complex feel clear, human, and possible.