Meet Our Board

Katherine Bissell Córdova has served as Executive Director of Chicago Fair Trade since 2014. Prior to working in fair trade, she worked for many years in the social justice movement, working for human rights, immigrant rights, and worker rights organizations. She has presented on community engagement in fair trade at the Fair Trade Federation and Fair Trade Campaigns’ national and international conferences. Katherine started in fair trade by opening Greenheart, a fair trade shop, in Chicago in 2007. Before that, Katherine served as the Executive Director of ARISE Chicago, an organization that partners with low-wage immigrant workers as they organize for improvements in the workplace, established a field office for GreenWood Alliance in Honduras, served as a human rights defender in Guatemala with Peace Brigades International, and worked at the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors for Torture in Chicago.

Originally from London, Nancy joined Chicago Fair Trade's staff as Director of Engagement and Outreach in 2022 after working for some of the UK’s pioneering fair trade organizations. At Twin & Twin Trading, she traveled to coffee cooperatives in Rwanda and Burundi to market their coffee to specialty buyers. She later worked for the non-profit arm of Traidcraft on communications, fundraising, and campaigns initiatives. She holds an MBA in Sustainable Innovation from the University of Vermont, where her capstone project was to scale up a direct-to-farmer cotton sourcing program in North Carolina. One of her favorite parts of her role as CFT's Director of Outreach is heading up youth engagement strategies to engage and inspire the next generation of fair trade activists.

Bethany Collins grew up in Southwest Michigan and moved to Chicago to study Communication at Loyola University, graduating in 2015. Since then, she has pursued a career with various nonprofit organizations, and currently works as a Development Officer for StrongMinds, an organization expanding mental health care access in Uganda and Zambia. She joined the board of Chicago Fair Trade in 2017, and became co-chair in 2020. In her free time, Bethany enjoys practicing yoga, cooking, pub trivia, and exploring Chicago's neighborhoods in search of art galleries and fair trade coffee shops. She also travels the world as much as life allows.

Erica is a life long North Sider, married with grown kids, with 20 years of professional experience in a variety of industries in administrative and marketing capacities. For the past 10 years Erica worked in news and documentary production for local PBS.

Jerome spent 37 years in public broadcasting at WBEZ radio. He hosted the program Worldview from 1994 until October of 2019. As someone convinced that broadcastings highest calling is to bring people together to make a difference, McDonnell’s roots with Chicago Fair Trade run deep. Worldview featured Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign that helped inspire the creation of Chicago Fair Trade, broadcast from CFT spring events, and interviewed countless fair-trade entrepreneurs about their amazing stories. Jerome is excited to serve an organization that gives Chicagoans a way to rally round ethical commerce and weaves together so many important issues he cares about. In his spare time Jerome grows native plants in his yard, bikes a lot, and tries to reduce his plastic consumption.

Maranda Leigh became an advocate of fair trade while studying at Indiana University, where a professor introduced her to the concept. Since then she has put her passion into practice, volunteering with fair trade retailers Global Gifts and Ten Thousand Villages; working on Fair Trade Campaigns for Indiana University Bloomington and the cities of Indianapolis, IN and Evanston, IL; and traveling to Ecuador with Minga Fair Trade Imports to see the impact of fair trade first hand. She has been a volunteer with Chicago Fair Trade since 2018 and serves as co-chair for CFT’s Conscious Closet Club. Maranda holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Apparel Merchandising and Spanish from Indiana University, and currently works in planning for a specialty food retailer. She lives in Chicago and enjoys spending as much time as possible outdoors and discovering new ways to practice zero-waste living.

Michelle Thomas is a social entrepreneur and former owner at Mata Traders, a social impact brand that produces apparel and accessories in social service based fair trade co-operatives in India and Nepal. With over a decade in the social impact space, she now does sales consulting, helping organizations to do two things: 1) ensure current and future sales are profitable and 2) develop and implement sales strategies for revenue growth. Michelle lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago, IL.

Robbie has served as a professional fundraiser and administrator in nonprofit spaces such as youth development, earth conservation and human rights for 15 years now, having spent the last decade focused on building the capacity of social justice movements organizing at the intersection of racial and economic justice nationally and at home in Chicago. She now leads her own consulting business, Social Change Fundraising- working with movement building organizations to advance their capacity building initiatives. Robbie has a BS in Psychology from the University of Toledo, loves to bike along the Lake Michigan bike trail, enjoys live music every chance she gets, and talking about ways we can sustain our wellbeing through such uncertain times. She is passionate about working behind the scenes to build a more just experience for all people and the planet, rooted in her values as a neurodiverse woman who understands that to get free means envisioning a world rooted in a collective love ethic, one where we are united in supporting each other to get free too. Only together can we build a world where all communities thrive and everyone belongs!💚 Robbie has also been a long time fair trade supporter, choosing to shop sustainably and fairly made goods thru artisan co-ops for more than two decades now-- well before she understood its connection to a then emerging global fair trade movement! Robbie has since become a supporter, low-key fan girl, and volunteer with Chicago Fair Trade for the last 8 years and is proud to be able to serve on its board of directors now, helping to support CFT through an exciting period of growth and development; but also in supporting its mission in spreading the word of fair trade, uplifting garment works and women of color owned co-ops around the world, fighting to pass legislation here in the US-- and doing so alongside this vibrant fair trade community here in Chicago. Join us!!

Sarah began volunteering with Chicago Fair Trade in 2018 and enjoyed it so much that she agreed to serve as the volunteer coordinator. She currently helps to connect volunteers with events and opportunities that support Chicago Fair Trade. Sarah has years of experience managing events, and genuinely enjoys leading people to work together toward a common goal. Her personal connection with fair trade values stems from her experience working in a social enterprise in Argentina and Colombia, where she equitably sourced products from local family businesses. It was during that time that she truly understood the living and working conditions of people without access to fair employment and education. Conversely, she also witnessed the empowerment that integrating fair trade values in a business created for the vendors and their communities.Sarah takes being called 'bossy' as a compliment, knows how to sew, rides her bike around town, and speaks fluent Spanish. She is excited to play a part in growing the Chicago Fair Trade community and promoting its mission.

Sheri has over 30 years of experience working as a public health advocate in Chicago, with a focus on equity, community engagement, partnership, collaborative assessment, and strategic planning. Sheri lead the Partnership for Healthy Chicago, Before that, Sheri worked as an occupational therapist in Boston and Chicago. Sheri has been active in her community for many years, volunteering for Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, Refugee One, and Care for Real, as well as the Chicago Community Chorus, Old Town School of Folk Music, and the Saints.

Taylor is passionate about facilitating the crafted goods and apparel life cycle with brands, designers, and makers who all value healthy long-term business relationships. A commitment to the centrality of collaboration is integral to the way she approaches her work. She has done this while the Director of Production and Sustainable Development at Mata Traders and now through her own product development & management firm Small Shop LLC. Her creative outlet is the clothing line she designs, Taylor Tall, for tall women seeking clothing thoughtfully sized to fit them.

Tony Fuller (he/him) has been the Director of Finance and Operations at the Jewish Council on Urban Affiars (JCUA) in September 2023. He worked in a similar role at A Just Harvest, a community kitchen, service center and food pantry from 2019-2023. Prior to this Tony worked as an Office Manager at Midwest Academy and as an assistant to Commissioner Kim DuBuclet at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District doing community outreach and policy research on water issues. Outside of work, you can find Tony growing vegetables and flowers in his community garden plot and volunteering with the Sierra Club.