Board Members

Nira Johri is the Chief Sustainability Officer for KFC global where she is responsible for leading KFC’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda across the pillars of People and Communities, Chicken and Nutrition, and Climate and Supply Chain. Before this, Nira was the Director, Global Diversity & Sustainability for Rich Products Corporation, a $4B global food business, where she leads the enterprise strategy for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Sustainability. She built Rich’s first ever long-term strategies for both sustainability and DEI. She also established the company’s carbon reduction goal and built the business case for Rich’s first renewable energy credit purchase. She chaired the organization’s Sustainability Operating Committee and the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council. Prior to Rich’s, Nira spent five years building the cocoa industry’s collective sustainability strategy, CocoaAction. Nira previously worked for Unilever and served in the Obama administration.

Throughout her career, she has been a passionate supporter of the development of women leaders and  served on Rich’s Our Women’s Network (OWN) Strategic Steering Committee. She is the founder of ‘Women in Policy,’ an affinity group focused on fostering professional development among women at the Pentagon. Nira established the first-ever gender conference on cocoa, bringing together over 100 stakeholders across Africa. She is also a Board Member of the Western New York Sustainable Business Roundtable and an Impact Fellow with the Sustainable Food Lab. She was recently recognized by Diversity MBA as a Top 100 Under 50 Executive Leader and completed a certificate in Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership from Harvard University. She holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge and a BS in Marketing & BA in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Patricia T. Morris is President of the Equilo Foundation which makes available free, open-source data and analytics tools to support the democratization of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) analysis and action planning globally. Dr. Morris is Secretary of the Board of Directors of Equal Origins (The Partnership for Gender Equity), an international non-governmental organization that develops tools and methodologies to support the coffee and cocoa industry’s engagement and investment in gender equity across the value chain.

Dr. Morris is a gender, diversity, and social inclusion expert with more than two decades of professional experience working with international relief and development organizations, global advocacy coalitions, international contracting firms, and higher education institutions. During her 25-year career, she has led dozens of organizations and corporations in institutionalizing gender and diversity policies, advancing women’s and girls’ empowerment, combating gender-based violence, and promoting social inclusion, women’s rights, and gender equality in organizational policies and programs. Her areas of expertise include gender integration, gender audits, GESI analysis and assessments, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives, gender-based violence, women’s economic empowerment, and gender in peace, conflict, and security. She has directed cutting-edge international development programs and provided expert-level technical assistance for gender equality and social inclusion in the planning, design, and evaluation of international relief and development programs. She has implemented gender mainstreaming initiatives, strengthened national and overseas staff capabilities, built institutional capacity in support of diversity, inclusion, and gender equality, and evaluated international development projects and programs in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and for organizations in the U.S. Dr. Morris has cultivated her expertise in measuring progress towards equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development at the global, regional, national and community levels and is the creator of InterAction’s Gender Audit, an internationally acclaimed and adopted tool for organizational development and institutional transformation.

Dr. Morris is an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of International Service where she teaches courses on Gender Analysis and Development and Social Inclusion Analysis for the International Development Program’s Skills Institute. Dr. Morris holds a Ph.D. in International Politics from Florida State University, an MA in Comparative Politics with an emphasis on Economic Development from Bowling Green State University, and a BA in International Affairs from Jacksonville University. She is a native of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Courtney Hood: In her role at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Courtney develops long-term partnerships with governments and multilateral organizations. She has worked for over 12 years in international development partnerships and policy with the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Canada’s development programme, including as part of Canada’s participation in the governing bodies of IFAD, the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Courtneyhas a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria. She has two children that light up her life and keep her busy. Courtney is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Vera Espindola Rafael is a Development Economist specializing in farmer resilience and livelihoods. She currently spearheads Strategic Initiatives at Azahar Coffee, focusing on cost of production research and developing “A Sustainable Coffee Buyer’s Guide,” a crucial pricing tool, while also managing export operations in Mexico. As an advisor to the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, she concentrates on enhancing coffee-related income and prosperity. 

From 2016 to 2018, Vera collaborated with the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture on the national coffee renovation plan, with an average investment of 70 million USD. Since then, Vera has represented Mexico in the International Coffee Organization, furthering global coffee industry goals. She was an active volunteer with the Specialty Coffee Association, having served on the Sustainability Council (2015-2018) and the Board of Directors (2019-2022). Additionally, she served on the Board of The Chain Collaborative, a US-based NGO, in 2022 and 2023.  

Her notable publications include “A Business Case to Increase Specialty Coffee Consumption in Producing Countries” and a report for IICA titled “El Mercado del Café en la región Mesoamericana.” 

Vera’s career began with an agricultural supply chain analysis at ANACAFE and continued at UTZ Certified, where she led the global coffee and cocoa program before focusing on Latin America.