Fair trade▪
Food justice▪
Nonprofit governance▪
Founder transitions▪
Funder relations▪
Certification standards
The Journey
The red thread
I imagine a world where food nourishes our bodies, the land, the sea, and the animals, where work is empowering rather than exploitative, and where everyone can afford a dignified and joyous life free from exploitation, racism, and sexism. My theory of change started when I began visiting and working alongside communities most affected by neoliberal policies like NAFTA: I saw how people were pushed off the land where they had lived and fed their families for generations. I learned firsthand that corporations were dictating policy without the people affected by it ever being in the room where decisions got made. That is when I learned the term Nothing About Me Without Me: the belief that everyone touched by a decision — farmworkers, farmers, factory workers, and boardrooms alike — needs a seat in making it. It has driven everything I have built, run, and fought for since.
The fair trade road
I put a business degree to use and started a fair trade company built on relationships with over 30 artisan cooperatives across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, buying handmade goods on fair trade terms and driving them around the country in my car to sell at home parties and trade shows. What drove me was telling the story of people impacted by the decisions we made here at home — corn farmers in Mexico impacted by free trade agreements that pushed over 2 million farmers off their land, forcing them to leave their homes and communities. I partnered with Global Exchange, a human rights organization, to open a wholesale division, expanding fairly traded goods into retail stores nationwide. My theory of change is that education and solidarity move people further than charity ever could. Over time I organized executive teams’ visits to their supply chains, so decision-makers could see the people behind their sourcing decisions firsthand.
Building an institution: Fair World Project
In 2010, I co-founded Fair World Project, growing it into the leading fair trade advocacy organization in the United States. I spent 13 years as Executive Director running campaigns that took on some of the biggest names in food, from a collective bargaining win with farmworkers on a Driscoll’s supply farm to watchdog pressure that got a Honduran farm’s fair trade certification pulled over labor violations. I built the cause marketing campaigns that put World Fair Trade Day on the calendar of natural product stores and ethical brands nationwide, spent a decade as editor of For A Better World Magazine and co-host of its podcast, and wrote and was quoted on food systems in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg Businessweek, among others. My career has not been a straight line — I’ve touched many parts of running an organization, from starting businesses and nonprofits to building governance structures, building movements and analyzing ethical certification standards, creating marketing strategies and building budgets, writing grants and retaining funders. All of it has led me here, to understanding the complexity organizations have to endure from external to internal dynamics.
Setting the standard
When the USDA organic standard opened the door to hydroponics, cutting healthy soil out of the definition of organic, I joined the group of NGOs and ethical businesses working to build something better. Alongside executive teams at Patagonia, Dr. Bronner’s, and Rodale Institute, I co-developed the Regenerative Organic Certification, adding soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness on top of the organic baseline — and built reports and tools comparing fair trade and fair labor certifications across the field alongside European NGOs in France, Germany, and the UK.
Sitting on both sides of the table
I have served on the boards of Equal Exchange, the Fair Trade Federation, the Regenerative Organic Alliance, and Grow Ahead, and I currently chair the board of Zebras Unite, the nonprofit arm of a member-owned co-op building capital, culture, and community for a more just economy. Thirteen years reporting to a board as an Executive Director, paired with years actually sitting on the other side of that table, means I know what a board needs to see to trust a plan, and what an executive needs from a board to execute one.
From market to policy
Along the way I earned a Master’s in Public Policy from UC Berkeley and a graduate certificate in food systems from the Berkeley Food Institute — credentials that gave language to instincts I already had from the road. Today I think less about winning any single campaign and more about building institutions: budgets, boards, transition plans sturdy enough to outlast the person who started them. That is what I bring to FLEX Collective: 25 years of knowing what it takes to get an idea worth fighting for into a form that survives contact with a funder, a board, or a succession.
Finding community
The hardest lesson I’ve learned over the years is that I couldn’t do any of it by myself. Organizing and being in community is at the core of success. Fair World Project was never one Executive Director’s vision — it was hundreds of honest conversations with a board, a staff, funders, and farmers who all had to be in the room. Nothing About Me Without Me is not just a belief about the organizations I have served; it is how I have had to work myself: in community, not in isolation. FLEX Collective, alongside Amy and Astrid, is the next version of that same lesson: the work is too hard, and too important, to build alone.
Core values & approach
Name the real problem
Solidarity over charity
Numbers in service of people
Stakeholders over shareholders
Plain talk, not jargon
Built to outlast me
If you’re coming to FLEX because funding fell through, a founder is stepping back, or a team is running on empty, the first thing I want you to know is that I have sat on both sides of that table — as the Executive Director asking a board for patience, and as the board member deciding whether to grant it.
I believe organizations should not chase unfettered growth; people, community, and the planet come first, before any executive’s salary goals or growth for its own sake. I am a listener before I am a strategist. I am calm in the storm, direct rather than academic, and good at getting people to move again once they are stuck.
My tenets are simple: be kind, tell the truth even when it is hard, and remember that solidarity, not charity, is what actually shifts power.
Collaborations
Fair World Project
Co-founded and served as Executive Director for 13 years; grew it into the leading fair trade advocacy organization in the U.S., now part of Corporate Accountability Lab.
Co-founder · Executive Director
Regenerative Organic Certification
Co-developed the standard alongside executive teams at Patagonia, Dr. Bronner’s, and Rodale Institute.
Standards Development
Zebras Unite
Board Chair; the nonprofit arm of a member-owned co-op building capital, culture, and community for a more just economy.
Board Chair · Governance
Grow Ahead
Board member; a platform regranting funding directly to farmer organizations in the majority world for climate resiliency.
Board Member · Regranting
Naturland International
Led a strategic feasibility report and stakeholder research for their U.S. market strategy.
Feasibility · Stakeholder Research
Real Organic Project
Managed collaboration with Naturland on bringing real organic food to U.S. eaters.
Partnership Management
Equal Exchange
Past executive board member of the worker-owned fair trade cooperative.
Executive Board Member
Fair Trade Federation
Past board member.
Board Member
For A Better World
Editor and co-host of the magazine and podcast for a decade.
Editorial · Podcast
Media
Writing and commentary on food systems featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg Businessweek.
Commentary · Thought Leadership