Rising Star Chapter

Helen Lentze

Helen is CMO of Pachamama Coffee and Founder and Principal of Leap Brands. She is a visionary marketing leader with more than 20 years of experience growing brands in the CPG and food industry and driving social transformation. To grow emerging brands successfully she combines her dual strengths of a deeply quantitative approach to Marketing – deriving strategy from data analysis and taking calculated risks into product innovation – with her origins of authentic storytelling and scrappy grassroots campaigning.

As the Senior Director of Marketing over nearly a decade at Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery and Meyenberg (owned by Emmi Group in Switzerland), Helen led the vision and marketing strategy for four national food brands and played a pivotal role growing them into market leaders in their respective categories. Earlier in her career, Helen seized the opportunity to lead marketing communications and advocacy for the rapidly emerging Fair Trade and Organic sectors at Fair Trade USA and Straus Family Creamery, propelling them forward by cultivating a loyal tribe of consumers.

About Pachamama Coffee

Pachamama Coffee is a US-based coffee roaster wholly owned and governed by thousands of smallholder farmers in Latin America and Africa. The global cooperative was founded in 2006 by five innovative producer groups from Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico and Ethiopia, who pooled their resources to create their own coffee company in California. Pachamama’s mission is to sell organic coffee in the most direct way possible and, in doing so, improve the livelihoods of coffee farmers and their families.

Abianne Falla

Abianne Falla is the founder of CatSpring Yaupon, the premier producer of yaupon, the only caffeinated plant native to North America.  Yaupon has a rich history and tradition with virtually every tribe along the Gulf Coast and throughout North America. CatSpring Yaupon is the world-wide leader in sustainable yaupon production and is committed to ethical labor practices through its people first employment program.

Prior to life as a Yaupon Entrepreneur, Abianne was a CPA for Ernst & Young, and latersupported community development for lululemon athletica. At lululemon, she learned the value of building community relationships for a rapidly growing company, and how to maintain them. In 2013, she earned her MBA in entrepreneurship from Acton, where she became passionate about learning fundamentals of business formation from other founders and CEOs and was named a Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholar. She’s been named Southern Living’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Texas A&M’s Professional Program of Accounting Rising Star. She has received a WeWork
Creator Award and an Eileen Fisher Women Owned Business Grant, and named one of Forbe’s NEXT 1,000 and Thrive Global’s “Limit Breaking Female Founders.”

A graduate of Texas A&M’s Professional Program of Accounting, Abianne has her Masters in marketing and her undergrad in accounting. She is a member of the Chickasaw Nation and currently resides in Austin, Texas with her husband and 6 and 2 year old daughters.

Rachel Budde

Rachel Budde is the herbalist and founder of Fat and the Moon, a company that provides handcrafted, herbal body care products to those seeking to imbue their daily regimes with more intention and botanical benefit.

Continuing a legacy of herbalists and natural healers, Rachel sees external herbal medicine as a gateway for profound realizations of the efficacy of plant medicine. Along with her studies of herbalism with teachers William Morris, Aviva Romm MD and herbalist Joshua Muscat, Rachel is also trained in the somatic psychotherapeutic method, Hakomi. She has also been trained in the ceremonial practices of the Mazatec tradition, from Huautla, Mexico. 

For the last six years, Rachel has explored her Slovenian heritage as it relates to Slovene traditions of herbal medicine and has been guided by her mentor, ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison. She has traveled to Slovenia and spent time interviewing her family as well as her Slovenian colleagues in ethnobotany, herbalism, folk tradition and ethnography. Her research will culminate in a book.

About Fat and the Moon

Fat and the Moon’s mission is to create a thriving culture of Self Care that goes far beyond the superficial understanding of that term to tap the true source of wellbeing which exists in social and ecosystemic harmony. Our products are a reflection of our values, and we are committed to the ongoing journey of sustainable, organic and local ingredients and low waste packaging. We are committed to working with organizations and projects, in our local and network community, to bolster efforts for environmental, and social justice. By creating a culture, of which our potions are the medium, we aim to inspire a devoted following in the reclamation of their inherent worth through the act of care.

Gwendolyn Dare Hageman

Azul Couzens

Azul Couzens is the co-founder and CEO of ¡Ya Oaxaca!, a family-run Mexican food brand he leads from Berkeley, California, in close partnership with his two brothers based in Oaxaca.

With a background of building mission-driven brands in the outdoor industry, and a life rooted in cycling, stewardship, and good food—Azul brings a grounded, values-first approach to his work. 

Since launching ¡Ya Oaxaca!, he’s helped grow the brand into national retail and earned multiple trade awards for its bold flavor, thoughtful sourcing, and standout design. Azul leads strategy, storytelling, and growth with a clear mission: to share the depth of Mexican flavors through the rich culinary traditions of Oaxaca—always with family, place, and purpose at the core.

Emily Griffith

Tucker Garrison

Tucker grew up amongst the wending intertidal waterways of Charleston, SC, but found his home amidst the sunshine and waves of the California coast. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Neotribal Studies; an interdisciplinary approach, asking and experiencing, What does it mean to be indigenous in the world today? He has lived amongst indigenous communities in Bali, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, amongst the Maya of Guatemala, and the Shipibo of the Peruvian Amazon. He’s driven by a passion to synergize the wisdom of ancient civilizations with modern humanity to foster a healthy, thriving Earth.

Maddie Hamann

Adam Hiner

Patrick Johnson

Kyle Koehler

Kate Linforth

Alex McIntosh

Michelle Pusateri

Tim Richards

Philip Richardson

Thaleon Tremain

Thaleon Tremain has been involved in international business development for the past 25 years. He is a co-founder and the CEO of Pachamama Coffee Cooperative, based in Sacramento, California, that is 100% owned and governed by more than 400,000 smallholder farmers in Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico and Ethiopia.

Thaleon has collaborated on coffee related projects all over the world and his experience involves most aspects of the industry, with specific focus on information technology, enabling direct-to-consumer trade between producers and consumers.

Raffi Vartanian