Title: Founder
Company Name: I-Ally
Company City/Company State: Union/NJ
Education: BFA, Southern Methodist University, Magna Cum Laude (2008); Diploma,
South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities (2004)
Certifications: Global Humanitarian Founders, Grapevine (2022); Typing Skills Proficiency Certificate, TypingTest.com (2022); Certificate, Newchip Accelerator (2021); Facebook Marketing Partner for Campaign Management, Meta (2019); Facebook for Journalists Certification, Meta (2018); Social Marketing Certification, Hootsuite Academy (2018)
Career History: Lead Writer, Authority Magazine (2024-Present); Member, Entreprenista (2022-Present); Contributing Writer, HackerNoon (2021-Present); Founder, I Ally Inc. (2020-Present); Founding Member, The Fourth Floor (2020-Present); Marketing Manager, Amazon Web Services (AWS) (2022); Founding Member, Tech Ladies (2019-2022); Advising Leader, Female Laboratory of Innovative Knowledge (FLIK) (2020-2021); Fellow, On Deck (2021); Social Media Marketing Specialist, Friends of the Edisto (FRED) (2019-2020); Founder, Get It Done Gal (2018-2020); Social Media Strategist, SCAR Project (2018-2020); Social Media and Circulation Manager, DiversityInc (2018-2019); Social Media Strategist, James Spence Authentication (JSA) (2018); Social Media Strategist, Confidence Girls (2017-2018); Corporate Receptionist, Prada (2014-2015)
Honors/Achievements: Greer Garson Award for Excellence in Acting, Southern Methodist University
Lucinda Koza is the founder and chief executive of I-Ally, a digital support platform for millennial caregivers navigating the demands of long-term, unpaid care. Her entry into health and social care advocacy was shaped by personal experience: in 2018, following a stroke that left her father in need of daily assistance, Koza assumed the role of his sole caregiver. The emotional and logistical weight of that responsibility—combined with a lack of accessible resources and community support—led her to identify a gap in the broader healthcare and social systems, particularly for younger caregivers often overlooked by policy and public discourse.
I-Ally was developed as a direct response to that experience. The web and mobile-based platform aims to serve the specific needs of millennial caregivers, a demographic balancing early career development, financial pressures, and family obligations. I-Ally offers a suite of services, including mental health resources, telehealth access, financial and legal navigation tools, and community forums. Koza has described the platform as a means of reducing isolation while improving quality of care for both caregivers and those they support.
Raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Koza grew up in a politically engaged household. Her father, a former member and Majority Speaker of the South Carolina state legislature, was involved in efforts to dismantle discriminatory laws and expand civil rights, including legislation to admit women to The Citadel. That early exposure to public service and civic responsibility has remained a defining influence. Koza has cited her upbringing as foundational to her sense of purpose, particularly the belief that “we don’t stand by when something is broken—we do the work to fix it.”
Before turning her attention to caregiving advocacy, Koza trained as an actor and storyteller. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University and later wrote and directed several creative projects. Her short film Laura Point was featured at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015, and she co-directed Caregivers: A Story About Them, a documentary exploring the human dimensions of caregiving. This background in the arts continues to inform her work, particularly her emphasis on personal narrative as a tool for healing and systemic change.
Koza’s advocacy gained wider recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she introduced a mutual aid feature to the I-Ally platform in collaboration with Golden Volunteer. The tool facilitated community-based support for caregivers, including the distribution of medical supplies and wellness check-ins. The initiative earned her recognition from Authority Magazine and Thrive Global, which named her among their “Heroes of the COVID Crisis.” She has also been named a Visionary Voice by All Raise and received an honorable mention in the Lyfebulb + Orexo Innovation Challenge for innovations in patient-centered care.
Koza is a member of the Time’s Up Care Economy Business Council, a coalition working to reform the structure and valuation of caregiving labor in the United States. She was also selected for the 2021 TechCrunch Include Cohort and participates in the SheWorx + AWS Startups Mentorship Program. Through these affiliations, she has joined a growing network of advocates and entrepreneurs focused on gender equity, inclusive design, and the long-term sustainability of the care economy.
Her work extends beyond caregiving into broader issues of women’s health, reproductive trauma, and maternal mental health. After the premature birth of her twins in 2023 and their extended stay in a neonatal intensive care unit, Koza began writing more openly about the psychological aftermath of high-risk childbirth and postpartum care. She has spoken about the enduring impact of medical trauma and the cultural expectations that often leave new mothers feeling unseen or unsupported once the initial crisis has passed. These reflections became the foundation of her forthcoming book—a collection of essays and interviews that centers the voices of women navigating infertility, birth trauma, postpartum depression, and maternal rage.
Koza is a regular contributor to publications including Thought Catalog, Caregiving.com, Medium Women, and Hackernoon. She is also a columnist for Authority Magazine, where she frequently writes about trauma recovery, gender and healthcare policy, and mental wellness. Her podcast, How I Ally, builds on these themes, offering interviews and personal narratives that explore identity, interdependence, and care.
Outside of her entrepreneurial work, Koza has been active in volunteerism and accessibility advocacy. She has worked with Be My Eyes, an app providing real-time visual assistance for blind and low-vision users, and served as a tutor for visually impaired students through Learning Ally and Lighthouse Guild International. These efforts reflect a broader philosophy of mutual support and inclusive design.
In parallel with her advocacy and business leadership, Koza has drawn on her background in marketing and digital consulting to amplify I-Ally’s reach. Through her consultancy, Got It Done Gal, she led a campaign using Hulu Ad Manager that substantially increased the platform’s visibility, reportedly growing its Instagram following from 500 to over 100,000.
Now based in Union, New Jersey, Koza lives with her partner and their fraternal twins. Her current work continues to center on the economic, emotional, and structural realities of caregiving, especially as experienced by women and younger generations. In public appearances and written work, she has called for the recognition of caregivers not only as service providers, but as patients and stakeholders whose health and agency are integral to the larger healthcare system.
Koza’s career to date reflects an evolving intersection of storytelling, caregiving, and entrepreneurship. While the origins of her work are rooted in personal crisis, her ongoing efforts aim to contribute to a national rethinking of how caregiving is valued, supported, and understood.