About Us

Nora founded The Chain Collaborative in 2014 in order to invest in local leaders as they developed and implemented community projects in coffee regions around the world. She holds a master’s degree in Sustainable Development from the Graduate Institute at School for International Training, where she focused her studies on gender in development and food systems. She is part of the Creator’s Group for the Coffee Sustainability Program of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and is currently an Authorized SCA Trainer for the program. Under the banner of TCC and in collaboration with other industry colleagues, she consults on a number of projects, has written for several coffee magazines and blogs, and has taught at a variety of educational institutions. She speaks English and Spanish.

Camila is a coffee quality specialist with a communications background. Based in Quito, Ecuador, she holds a B.A. in Graphic Design & Communications from San Francisco de Quito University and has more than 20 years of experience in these fields. She started her journey in coffee in 2014, when she founded Botánica, a café, training center, and quality lab. Afterward, she worked in different roles throughout the coffee industry, specializing in coffee quality and education. While working closely with producers and sourcing and processing Ecuadorian coffee, she was encouraged to learn more about sustainability and get involved with community-led development in the coffee sector, which led her to TCC. Camila is a Q Arabica Grader and is currently completing the Assistant Instructor Program of the Coffee Quality Institute. She is fluent in Spanish and English.

Carolina is a researcher and communications specialist with previous experience as a journalist. Based in Madrid, Spain, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Rey Juan Carlos University and a master’s degree in International Relations from Queen Mary University of London. A personal interest in sustainability led her to investigate coffee farming communities in the Canary Islands and northern Argentina, which launched her into a research and communications career in the coffee sector. Alongside her role at TCC, she works part-time for Digital Coffee Future, supporting their communications efforts. She is fluent in English and Spanish.

Itzel is an environmental activist and a founding member of Colectivo Rokunin, one of the 2021-2022 Community-Led Development Incubator participants. As part of the Incubator and beyond, she has been actively supporting project development and implementation in rural communities in Veracruz, Mexico, focused on gender equality and family rights, among other topics. Itzel is one of Alumni Network Leaders at TCC, and is also the Program Manager of Bean Voyage Mexico, where she is responsible for managing farmer relationships and supply chains. She is an engineer in Horticulture by training and has a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. She speaks Spanish and English.

Winnie is a community leader and advocate for girls’ empowerment based in the Kanungu district, Uganda. She is the founder of Girl Power Foundation Uganda, a community-based organization dedicated to addressing school dropouts, teenage pregnancies, and child marriages. Her passion for this work is deeply personal—after escaping a forced marriage at 16, she committed herself to creating opportunities for girls to reach their full potential.

Winnie’s work focuses on skills development, mentorship, self-esteem building, mental health, and education for girls in her community. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Project Planning and Entrepreneurship from Uganda Christian University and has participated in leadership programs such as YALI RLC EA, AWE by the U.S. Mission, and CLI by the Issroff Family Foundation. As one of our CLD Incubator participants, she is now co-leading the our Alumni Network program.

Elisa is the creator of Digital Coffee Future, an interactive online space where any coffee stakeholder can share their knowledge and discuss tools for digitalizing the coffee value stream. She is also the Founder and Lead Consultant of Expressing Origin, a consultancy whose mission is to support coffee stakeholders to digitalize their value chains, and tech providers to improve their solutions. Expressing Origin focuses on other aspects of coffee sustainability as well. Before fully dedicating herself to a career in coffee, Elisa deepened her understanding of the application of digital solutions in Ghana, and has experience in Colombia in the sustainable development arena, where she first entered into contact with the coffee industry. Elisa joins TCC as a Lead Consultant on several assignments throughout the year. She holds an MSc in Food Policy from the City University of London and a BSc in Food & Agriculture from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. She speaks Italian, English, and Spanish.

Miranda Haney is a coffee educator and the founder of Barista Friend, a mobile coffee training service based in Austin, Texas. She got her first job as a barista in 2015 while pursuing a degree in Journalism and Spanish at Salisbury University in Maryland. In the years since, she has worked multiple roles in cafes, served as an AST in the SCA’s Barista Skills and Brewing modules, and volunteered her time as a board member of the Austin Coffee Collective. Her passions for community building, creative problem solving, and sustainability are what inspired her to join the TCC Program Fellowship.

Alex holds master’s degrees in both Public Health and Public Administration from Texas Tech University and an Arabica Q-Grader certification. His passion for coffee began as a hobby and developed into positions as a barista and roasting assistant during graduate school. It was a desire to combine his passions of community impact and coffee that led him to changing careers after graduation. Alex’s aspirations had him seeking out ways to better understand the coffee supply chain and eventually led to the launch of his own social impact-focused roastery and consulting company, Vital Coffee Roasters.

Stephanie is passionate about the specialty coffee industry and helping agribusiness be more sustainable and profitable for everyone involved, especially those who have been historically disadvantaged. Stephanie joined the TCC board in 2022 and brings 15 years of experience in strategic research and advisory services, stakeholder engagement, partnership development, and project management, particularly at the intersection of sustainable development and business. She focuses on harnessing the power of business to drive meaningful change and address social and environmental challenges. This includes helping companies analyze new markets, identify underserved customer segments, and strengthen supplier relationships. It also includes helping industry associations and governments better support businesses of all sizes. Stephanie’s professional projects have covered diverse sectors and geographies, including particularly exciting work aiming to develop domestic coffee markets in coffee-producing countries. Stephanie has an MA from Tufts University and a BA from Wellesley College. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English.

Ben joined The Chain Collaborative board in 2015 as the founding board member. He began his work in coffee in 2005, starting 1000 Faces Coffee as a roasting and importing company. He later lived in Los Angeles and worked for Frinj Coffee and 49th Parallel Coffee. Ben was a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he focused on ecosystems and western philosophy, two lifelong passions he continued to study until his passing. Throughout his career, Ben was fortunate to travel extensively throughout the coffee lands, making over 20 voyages to different coffee-producing countries in his almost 20 years of working in the sector. He left an indelible mark on all those who knew him, and we thank him for being one of the first people in the coffee industry to see the potential of The Chain Collaborative. May his beautiful light continue to shine from up above.

Samantha Veide serves as Managing Director of the Americas at Forum for the Future, an international sustainability organization, where she partners with organizations to stretch their visions and develop future-fit strategies that transcend risk mitigation—daring instead to contribute to the full ecological and social restoration of our planet. Before becoming Managing Director, Samantha led Forum’s organizational design work, focusing on progressive governance and decision-making models, and capability-building. She previously spent two decades in the food and beverage industry, including at Mars Incorporated, working across learning and development, innovation, and corporate social responsibility. Samantha has also held key volunteer leadership roles, including serving as Chair of the Sustainability Council for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). Her educational background spans Organizational Communication, Psychology, Gender Studies and Sustainable Business Leadership. This interdisciplinary training and experience enables her to guide organizations through strategy development and the more human side of change.

Alejandra Rodriguez is the Give Miami Day and Special Events Director at The Miami Foundation. With over 15 years of experience in marketing, development, and event planning, she has worked in international development with multicultural teams and industries across the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Prior to her role at The Miami Foundation, Alejandra worked with nonprofits focusing on Latin America, including TECHO, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes youth volunteers to fight extreme poverty in Latin America by constructing transitional housing and implementing social inclusion programs, and the Seeds for Progress Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of education in coffee-growing communities in Guatemala and previously in Nicaragua. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and an MBA from INCAE Business School. Alejandra is a strong believer in the power of collaboration through public-private partnerships to achieve sustainable results and long-term impact.

Adam is a husband, father of two girls, and loves working in the world of specialty coffee. With a diverse professional background spanning nearly two decades, his experience includes co-founding a coffee roasting business, building affordable housing, managing urban infrastructure reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, co-founding and leading a non-profit start-up in Nicaragua, and serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras. Driven to support people who co-create meaningful cross-cultural connections and inspire sustainability, he joined The Chain Collaborative board in 2024. He is a fluent Spanish speaker with a BA in Theology from Boston College and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA.

Gelila Solomon is a medical doctor, public health expert, and social entrepreneur committed to creating systems that return value to producer communities and strengthen local economies. She is the Founder and Director of Tilaye, a start-up building a centralized, transparent marketplace that connects socially conscious consumers with responsible producers and businesses. With a strong background in coffee sustainability, Gelila is focused through Tilaye on expanding equitable value chains that prioritize producer livelihoods and environmental stewardship. Though her career began in clinical medicine, with first-hand experience in both urban and remote rural settings—her first role as a physician was at Lalibela Hospital, located 600 km from Ethiopia’s capital—this early exposure to the inequities and structural challenges of healthcare and rural economies shaped her commitment to systemic change. Tilaye is an extension of this commitment, and currently integrates medical expertise, grassroots understanding, and entrepreneurial thinking to drive impact at the intersection of health, sustainability, and inclusive development for equitable value chains.

Ella Taylor is an environmental educator and water rights campaigner based in the United Kingdom. With a degree in sustainable development and geography, Ella gained a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which systems of land use, agribusiness, and international development often dictated the livelihoods of farming communities disproportionately. Having worked on farms for much of her life as well as on the TCC team from 2020-2022, Ella feels passionately about continuing her efforts to strengthen the sovereignty and collective power of coffee farming communities worldwide. Through her experience as a staff member with TCC and her interdisciplinary background and approach to enacting sustainable change, Ella brings an informed and multi-angled perspective to the TCC board.

Sara Lucia Wohlmeyer Mosquera is a Colombian civil engineer and rural development leader dedicated to advancing equitable, sustainable, and locally-driven solutions in the coffee and cacao sectors. Based in the department of Cauca, she works closely with the Cooperativa Multiactiva de Campesinos del Cauca and leads ANTERUNA, a brand that highlights high-quality, origin-based coffee and cacao products. Sara is a graduate of Illy’s Master in Coffee Economics and Science, and was a TCC Fellow in 2024. Both experiences deepened her global perspective on agribusiness, sustainability, and equitable trade. Her work integrates agro-industrial innovation, circular economy practices—including the transformation of coffee by-products—and community-based tourism. With experience in international training programs, she brings a multidisciplinary approach grounded in both technical expertise and grassroots engagement. Recognized in Colombia as a coffee taster and barista, she promotes sustainable business models that strengthen local economies and honor the traditional knowledge of farming communities.