Hi, I'm Ale.

I'm a former environmental engineer and co-founder of Nori, now a speaker and storyteller.

I co-founded Nori, a venture-backed carbon removal marketplace. That experience taught me that the most important part of a company is often the part that's hardest to say out loud. Agency of Story is my solo practice, where I help founders and leaders find that part and build a story their team and investors can carry.

Outside of client work, I write and speak about agency, care, and the honest work of staying grounded. I'm a reader who likes to take a long time over a good book.

• Education: B.S. Environmental Engineering, Columbia · M.S. Mechanical Engineering, UC Irvine
• Previously: Co-founder of Nori, a carbon removal marketplace
• Now: Running Agency of Story, and writing and speaking under Alexsandra.Encourages

I grew up in Miami, where I saw the effects of sea-level rise and environmental damage firsthand. That's where my urgency about climate came from. I wanted to fix the thing that was breaking, and I wanted to do it with real tools.

So I studied environmental engineering at Columbia University, then earned a master's in mechanical engineering at UC Irvine. I spent my early career at Southern California Edison, working on renewable energy and smart grid technology. I learned how to take something complicated apart, understand how it fits together, and make it work under pressure.

In 2017 I co-founded Nori, a venture-backed carbon removal marketplace. We were building something the world hadn't seen before, combining carbon markets and blockchain technology to scale climate solutions. We raised $18 million, grew to a 30-person team, and worked with innovators, investors, and policymakers. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.

I also burned out. Not because I lacked intelligence or commitment, but because I was caught in a hustle culture that I'd come to believe was normal. The grind, the urgency, and the pressure to do more faster left very little room for clear thinking, creativity, or rest.

The turning point was realizing that the same systems overheating the planet were also burning out the people trying to save it, and I was one of them. I started to see that the way we lead is part of what we build. You can't create a sustainable future with unsustainable leadership.

When I tried to set boundaries and realistic expectations, I felt shame. I was stuck between being the hero and feeling unsafe to stop. That shame kept me in cycles of overwork, and it took my creativity and my bravery with it.

I got through it with the help of a coach and mentors, and by getting clear on my own values. My values, not someone else's expectations, had to guide me. From that place, I started Calming Chaos Coaching in August 2024, because I wanted to help other people in the spot where I'd struggled.

Coaching founders taught me something about myself, too. We use an exercise called the zone of genius, which names the work that drains you (your zone of incompetence), the work you're only competent at, and the work that energizes you, your Zone of Genius. Mine was public speaking. For a long time I wouldn't take it seriously. I worried it was ego, or a sign of an old wound, so I kept it on the side while I coached.

I kept posting on social media every day anyway. A few of my videos took off, and I saw how far a story could travel. I also saw that I'd outgrown the coaching model. With some space, and by letting go of what I thought I should be, I stepped away from Calming Chaos in 2026.

A conversation with a founder friend changed the direction. He was a strong technical builder, good at explaining his work to customers and partners, but he hadn't been able to raise, because investors couldn't follow his story. I started working on his venture story. That's when it clicked: my love of storytelling and speaking, and my background in business, entrepreneurship, and venture-backed startups, belonged in the same work.

Agency of Story is where all of that comes together. I started it in June 2026 as a solo storytelling practice for founders and leaders raising pre-seed through Series A. I help them find the story their investors and teams can carry, the one that holds up when they aren't in the room to explain it.

I also write, speak, and make videos under Alexsandra.Encourages, on agency in overwhelm, mental health, relational health, and emotional health. About a third of that work is storytelling for founders and leaders. The rest uses story to show how to find your footing in a world that feels like too much, including when the problems are bigger than any one person, like climate change and AI.