Ali has a long history of public service, having begun her NHS career as a nurse in the early 1980s. She has held a variety of clinical, managerial and academic positions, leading and evaluating service improvement, major service and organisational change. Before her retirement from a full-time senior leadership role in 2018, Ali was the chief executive officer for NHS Darlington and NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Groups and chair of the North East Leadership Academy.
Ali is passionate about leadership development and system working and committed to the delivery of high quality, personalised and effective care both within a hospital and community environment. She has a long-standing interest in harnessing the potential of patient, carer and public involvement, having undertaken a Fulbright Fellowship at the Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota in 2001, which focused on patient and public engagement in the co-design of services.