Hi, I’m Carla Fernandez. I help ideas that heal enter culture.

I’m currently writing a book titled RENEGADE GRIEF, exploring the care practices real people find helpful in times of loss, despite living in a death-denying culture. (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

I’m an experience designer, facilitator and community strategist. I focus on projects that bring creativity, joy and connection to the roots of our most intractable problems.

My clients are foundations, government agencies at local and federal levels, coalitions and brands, united by their drive to repair or restore a part of their industry or community.

I am most proud of my work co-founding The Dinner Party, the world’s first nonprofit dedicated to solving the crisis of isolation at our most universal intervention point - grief and loss, for people in their 20-40s. From an idea started on our back deck, The Dinner Party is now active in over 100 cities and featured in New York Times, NPR, and O Magazine.

Other projects near and dear:

Census Accelerate: Partnered with the Federal Census Bureau’s Census Open Innovation Lab to design and roll out a national program bringing creatives and grassroots organizations together to get out the count.

Civic Spirit: Designed and facilitated a convening of faith-based civics educators shepherding students into the gifts and responsibilities of citizenship.

American + Jewish + Democracy: Designed and facilitated a convening of 12 leading Jewish foundations to discuss the future of giving in the protection of democracy.

Cielito Lindo Retreat: Reinvented a home in Joshua Tree, CA to create a retreat space for creatives, activists, and feminists needing time in nature to refuel before keeping up the good fight.

enso: Founding-team member of enso, a creative agency focused on brand impact and purpose. While there, I launched a network of 75 change makers to create an impact agency with no walls.