Board of Directors

Chair of the Board

Balzac Brothers & Company

Samantha Keane is a coffee trader at Balzac Brothers & Company, Inc. She received her BA in Art History, Criticism and Conservation at College of Charleston, before beginning her career in coffee in 2011 as a fourth generation Balzac at her family business, Balzac Brothers & Company, Inc. Bringing a new level of organization to the business, Samantha pioneered, and is in charge of, the CQI certified cupping lab at Balzac. Staying true to her family’s heritage she is also a member of the Green Coffee sales and sourcing team, working alongside her two brothers to further the Balzac family Coffee legacy. Samantha completed her Q-grader certification in 2014. She currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina.

Secretary of the Board

Reunion Coffee Roasters

Adam is the President of Reunion Coffee Roasters, a B Corp-certified specialty roaster and wholesaler, based in Oakville, Ontario. He is a long-standing member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Sustainability Council, and along with Grounds for Health, he is also on the boards of the Coffee Association of Canada, Klink Coffee and the Central Canadian Barista Competition.

Adam has traveled around the world as a speaker on sustainability in coffee and extensively as a buyer in coffee-producing countries – developing direct trade relationships in Tanzania, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Costa Rica, Columbia and Brazil, as well as growing Reunion Island’s use of certified coffees to over 60% of all purchases. He is also a contributor to Huffington Past’s blog on the topic of coffee and sustainable agriculture.

Treasurer of the Board

The Lemelson Foundation

Pam Kahl is currently the Communications Officer at The Lemelson Foundation, a leading funder of invention in service of social and economic change. Kahl is a veteran communications leader with expertise in the corporate, nonprofit, and academic sectors. She began her career with more than 14 years at WE—formerly known as Waggener Edstrom Worldwide—where she served as senior vice president and helped oversee agency marketing, business development, and the Microsoft Global Account planning team. Ms. Kahl later led her own strategic communications consultancy, Verbal800 Communications, for nearly a decade, before serving as the Vice President for Development and Communications at Grounds for Health.

She holds a bachelor of arts in English from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a master’s degree in digital media communications from the University of Washington. Ms. Kahl also earned a certificate in international development management and policy from the University of Washington Evans School of Public Affairs.

Black & White Coffee Roasters

Lem is the Co-Founder of Black & White Coffee Roasters located in Raleigh, NC. Lem’s prior work experience includes West Coast Regional developer for Counter Culture Coffee in California and General Manager for The Daily Grind Espresso Café in Chapel Hill.  Lem was the First Black United States Barista Champion in 2016, Atlanta and the First Black World Barista Champ Finalist in 2016, Dublin, Ireland.

University of Rhode Island

Erica Liebermann, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing. She is a women’s health nurse practitioner and has been a clinical consultant and trainer for Grounds for Health since 2011, and enjoyed working with GfH teams in Mexico, Nicaragua and Kenya. Erica has extensive clinical experience and research expertise in global women’s health, gender equity, and cervical and breast cancer early detection, with recent projects in the Dominican Republic and India. Erica was a commissioner on the Women, power, and cancer Lancet Commission. She is passionate about reducing barriers to cervical cancer screening and follow-up for women globally and advancing progress towards cervical cancer elimination.

Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee

Katie is Director of Commodity Procurement at Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee, which, with facilities and offices in Mississauga, Ontario and Fort Worth, Texas, is one of North America’s leading private label coffee and tea suppliers.  In her more than 20 years at Mother Parkers, Katie has gained expertise in many facets of the coffee industry including procurement, finance, risk management, supply chain, product development, and sensory quality.  An experienced and well-respected voice in the coffee industry, Katie enjoys all aspects of her work and is enthusiastic about sharing her knowledge with and learning from colleagues in the coffee industry throughout North America and the world.

Katie earned a bachelors degree in Commerce from the University of Guelph in 2003 and, while working full time in the Finance Department at Mother Parkers, earned her designation as a Certified Management Accountant (Certified Professional Accountant) in 2008.

TogetHER for Health

Dr. Heather White is a global health specialist with 25 years of experience in non-communicable diseases, family planning, HIV, and cervical cancer prevention. She serves as the executive director at TogetHER for Health, a global advocacy organization that collaborates with global partners to underscore the need for innovation and financing to support the elimination of cervical cancer worldwide. Prior to this, Heather oversaw the global non-communicable disease portfolio at Population Services International, where she supported the design, implementation and evaluation of cervical cancer prevention programs in multiple countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds a doctorate in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She served in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, West Africa (2000-2002). When she’s not working, Heather enjoys traveling, biking and spending time with her family.  

Grounds for Health Co-Founder
Board Member Emeritus

Coffee Enterprises
Dan Cox & Associates

Dan co-founded Grounds for Health in 1996. He began his career 30 years ago in a small coffee roasting start-up company. In 1992 he founded Coffee Enterprises and later created its sister company Dan Cox & Associates. He is the owner and President of these separate companies in Burlington, Vermont. Dan served as President of the Speciality Coffee Association of America, Chairman Coffee Development Group, Chairman of Coffee Quality Institute, Chairman, Board of Advisors of Coffee Kids. He was awarded “ Man of the Year” Distinguished Service Award from the SCAA in 1992, is a published author, and been a featured speaker at numerous industry conferences in the US, Europe, Africa and Japan.

Board Member Emeritus

Royal Coffee Inc.

In 1978, Robert Fulmer cofounded Royal Coffee and throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Royal helped to usher in the specialty coffee revolution on the West Coast, which has now spread to all corners of the globe. Fulmer was a charter member of the SCAA (now SCA) and was the co-chairman of the SCAA Fair Trade Task Force. Today, he sits on the board of directors of Grounds for Health and with the help of over 50 key employees, Fulmer continues to finance and guide Royal Coffee, including The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room, warehouses in Seattle, Houston, Madison, Shanghai and the Royal Oakland, CA warehouse, a 90,000 square foot “candy store full of the best coffees from around the world.”

Texpak Inc.

Howard is currently the General Manager of Texpak Inc., which exclusively represents Scolari Engineering S.p.A. in North America. For more than 20 years now, Howard has been visiting coffee companies across the U.S. and Canada, successfully selling Scolari coffee roasters, grinders, and ancillary equipment to several of the premier coffee companies in the industry.  Before his involvement with Scolari, Howard sold materials to the coffee and tea industry and before that he provided packaging engineering to Scott Paper, General Foods, and Tetley Inc.  For several years, Howard has helped to enable Grounds For Health to participate in the many of the coffee trade shows in held in the U.S., to further “spread the word” to the coffee community. He is a holder of both a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering.