Ali Caliendo, PhD is a tireless advocate for children and families, focusing on kinship, foster and adoptive families. She launched, funded and currently serves as the Executive Director of Foster Kinship, a 501c3 non-profit organization devoted to the support of kinship families in the state of Nevada.

As a nonprofit leader, she is adept at delivering from the strategic to tactical level with proven results bringing vision for programs, fundraising and advocacy to fruition.

Dr. Caliendo focuses her academic work on policy implications for children in nonparental care in the United States. Her dissertation research examined the impacts of recent federal child welfare legislation on the formation of nonparental family types across all 50 states and identified key policy areas that have potentially adverse effects for children in kinship families.

As a former licensed foster and now an adoptive parent herself, Dr. Caliendo is a frequent contributor to the local, state and national conversation on kinship and foster care. In addition, she is also passionate about raising awareness of and improving services for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Ali currently resides in Las Vegas with her husband Terry and their two sons, Anthony and Giovanni.