Staff

Monika Firl    |     EJ Dawson    |    Ellen Meredith    |    Felipe Gurdian    |   Dave Huehn

 

Monika Firl, Cooperative Coffee’s producer relations manager,
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 coordinating a regional program within the Campesino a Campesino network for information exchange on production practices for organic coffee and market alternatives with farmers from Chiapas and the rest of Central America, 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. 

Monika remembers fondly the day when Bill Harris walked through the door of a farmer coop in Chiapas - where she worked at the time - and began to "tell the story" of his interest in Fair Trade and the ideas he had for supporting small farmers. That conversation stuck with her (as well as the sincerity and positive vision) and the relationship with a soon to be formed Cooperative Coffees began a few short years later - first coordinating some visits to farmer coops in Chiapas, then with communication support and now as Producer Relations Manager and Director of Cooperative Coffee's "sister coop" - Cooperative de Solidarite du Cafe Equitable, CoopSol.

 

Our resident in-house coffee cupper and Labo-equitable manager EJ Dawson was born somewhere in New England and has somehow accumulated over 12 years of experience in the coffee world in cities such as Amherst, Chicago, Nashville, Durham, and now Montreal. Roles played in the industry include being a barista, a production roaster, a sample roaster, cupping lab manager, cupping instructor, an international jury member for the Cup of Excellence program, a delivery driver, and probably some other things he’s forgetting at the moment. He’s also taught and co-taught classes for cupping at SCAA conventions and currently still teaches programs on roasting basics and cupping palette development in the Coop Sol Lab. Personal hobbies include photography, long walks on the beach, and tag team wrestling.

 

 

An innocent question "Is it possible that coffee would taste like green peas?" sent Ellen Meredith down an entirely new career track in the fall of 2010. Having retired from the advertising world, the stay-at-home mom role, and 15 years as a self-employed caterer, Ellen is now lab the assistant at Coop Coffees Montreal. Sample roasting  and cupping since October, she is now armed with an SCAA succesful cupping course, and continues to hone her roasting skills, as well as fine tune her gifted discerning palate.
In between tennis matches and volunteer horseback riding with handicapped children, Ellen will also be planning and assisting with events such as our 'Roaster Workshops'.

 

 

Born and raised in Costa Rica, Felipe Gurdián Piza developed a taste (and love!) of coffee as a kid and has been a stickler for good coffee since. He came to Montreal originally to get his Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics and History at McGill University. One fateful summer Felipe decided to remain in Montreal (to enjoy the city at its fullest!) and pursue a career in development. Felipe came to CoopSol the summer of 2010, humbly offering translation services as an intern, little did he suspect that we would so quickly grasp upon his myriad of talents and be offering him a part-time, leading to full-time position by the summer of 2011. He would soon enough "graduate" to the Green Desk position with Florent Gout's departure to France.

 

Dave Huehn, Coop Coffee’s new communications assistant, grew up in a small town in Ontario but moved to the big city of Montreal in 2007 to pursue his education and to immerse himself in Montreal’s culture. After engaging with local activists and learning about cooperatives, he knew that he wanted to work for an organization where every person is treated fairly. After hearing about an opportunity at Coop Coffees, Dave knew he had found the right place. Having previously done communications work for local development organizations and for a Member of Parliament, Dave is excited to leave the world of politics and enter the world of fair trade. Passionate about social justice, photography, and Canadian politics, Dave is proud to be a member of Cooperative Coffees!

 

See the staff at the CoopCoffees office in Americus, Georgia.