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Board of Directors
Helen Voogd, Bean North - Chair
Helen is passionate about fair trade and coffee, and is co-owner of Bean North Coffee Roasting Co. Ltd. with Michael King, another fair trader. Conducting business in a way that is more fair just makes sense. Helen enjoys traveling to the coffee lands and meeting the coffee farmers and their families. Living in northern Canada, winter is definitely a season to her liking. Helen enjoys spending time with her other half Michael and their son Sasha.
Chris Treter, Higher Grounds Trading Co. - Secretary
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Chris is the owner of Higher Grounds Trading Co. based in Traverse City, Michigan. Higher Grounds is Michigan's only 100% fair trade and organic coffee roasting company. He is also founder of On the Ground - a not for profit organization dedicated to bringing fresh water, education, and health care to those without. Chris spends his winters traveling to coffee lands and his summers on the beaches of Northern Michigan. He also enjoy a good run through the woods or a bike ride toward the horizon. |
Terry Patano, DOMA Coffee Roasters - Vice-chair
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Birth Name – Terry Vincent Patano |
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Quote - "It was true that I didn't have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?" Or in my case, become a coffee roaster.
Dan Bailey, Amavida Coffee - Treasurer
Matt Earley, Just Coffee Cooperative
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Matt Earley is a co-founder of Just Coffee Cooperative-- a coffee roasting co-op in Madison, WI that seeks to challenge the dominant model of trade and replace it with one that works well for all involved. Matt holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of KY and a MA in Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies from UW-Madison. He enjoys traveling to meet coffee growers and other co-conspirators in the mission-based fair trade movement as well hanging out with his two lovely daughters and wonderful wife. Matt encourages you to seek transparency from all businesses that you patronize with your hard-earned dollars. |
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Monika Firl (CoopSol) Manager
Monika has worked with a variety of locally based development projects, while living in Central America and Mexico from 1991 to 2000. Her experiences range from founding and directing a center in San Salvador for the exchange of information on alternative technology, to direct participation in technical training and marketing development with coffee producers’ cooperatives in Chiapas— including Mut Vitz and Maya Vinic from whom Cooperative Coffees maintains a relationship. From 1996 to 2000 she coordinated a regional program within the Campesino a Campesino network for information exchange on production practices for organic coffee and viable market alternatives among farmers from Chiapas and the rest of Central America.
