Meet Our
Founder

Carolyn Federman

Executive Director

Before starting the Charlie Cart Project in 2014, Carolyn led Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard Project, developed programming with the Jamie Oliver Foundation, co-founded the Berkeley Food Institute, and co-produced UC Berkeley’s Edible Education course with Michael Pollan. She is a proud emeritus of the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Public Library Foundation, and the author of New Favorites for New Cooks, (TenSpeed Press, 2018), based on children’s favorites from the Charlie Cart Project curriculum. Carolyn is the parent of two fabulous kids (who love to cook and eat!)

Michelle Derheim

Customer Relations Manager

Michelle brings over 30 years of senior management experience in sales, marketing and advertising with a focus on growth strategies at Disney, ABC Television, and Hearst Media Group. In the role of Customer Relationship Manager, Michelle focuses on developing the systems and relationships to scale the organization and deepen Charlie Cart’s impact through strategic regional concentrations. Michelle holds a BS in Business Management from Pepperdine University and is currently completing both an MBA at Pepperdine and a Master’s in Food Business at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

Siobhan Keys

Administrative Coordinator

Siobhan brings a decade of dedicated service in food access and administrative management to the Charlie Cart Project, most recently with GrowNYC, running various food access/farmer’s markets across New York City. Additionally, Siobhan has served as the Administrative Manager at Greenmarket, establishing processes to streamline administrative functions for an operation encompassing nearly 50 Greenmarkets throughout the city. Siobhan holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from Queens College.

Cecily Upton

Director of Operations and Strategic Partnerships

Cecily Upton has 20 years of nonprofit experience ranging from executive leadership, strategy, policy and advocacy, programs, and fundraising. Cecily spent over a decade of her career co-founding and leading FoodCorps, a national nonprofit that connects thousands of kids to healthy food in schools across the country, where she helped grow the organization from the spark of an idea to a $20 million annual budget. Beyond her nonprofit leadership work, Cecily co-owns Friends & Family, a wine bar in Portland, ME. Cecily has a B.A. from Bowdoin College and a M.A. from New York University. She enjoys hiking, skiing, gardening, and adventuring with her partner, Michael, and her 8-year old, Lola.

Connie Buu

Director of Supply Chain

Connie Buu brings 20 years experience to the Charlie Cart Project’s manufacturing process. In her previous roles with Flextronics, Finisar, and JDSU, Connie managed supply chain, operations, process and procurement. Most recently as a specialized consultant in Oracle software, Connie directed supply chain in collaboration with teams ranging from 5 to 250. As Director of Supply Chain, Connie oversees manufacturing, logistics, forecasting and resource management. Connie holds a B.S. in Business Administration from San Jose State University. She is the proud parent of a young teen who loves to cook.

Molly Rosenthal

Director of Development

Molly Rosenthal (she/her) brings a decade of fundraising and communications experience in food and economic justice, and environmental activism. She has designed and led successful campaigns, strategic planning initiatives, and partnerships, resulting in sustainable growth for organizations with budgets ranging from $1million – $30 million. Molly is passionate about building relationships and believes everyone has the potential to be a philanthropist. She is particularly excited about the collective power of small donors to fuel a movement, and the role of storytelling to shift narratives and inspire action. Molly holds a BA in Journalism from San Francisco State University.

Alice Waters

Advisor

Alice Waters is a chef, author, activist, and the founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has championed local sustainable agriculture for over four decades. In 1995 she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, which advocates for a free school lunch for all children and a sustainable food curriculum in every public school. In 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, proving that the table is a powerful means to social justice and positive change. Alice is the author of fifteen books, including New York Times bestsellers The Art of Simple Food I & II and The Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea. Photo courtesy of Amanda Marsalis.

Bob Martin

Advisor

Program Director, Food System Policy Program, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future

Brian Dougherty

Advisor

The Charlie Cart was designed by Brian Dougherty, Principal Creative Director at Celery Design Collaborative, in Berkeley, CA. Brian is the author of Green Graphic Design and a frequent lecturer on sustainable design.

Carina Wong

Advisor

Carina Wong is the Deputy Director of Education for the College Ready Work Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her portfolio is focused on dramatically improving student achievement by investing in teachers—helping them improve their practice, scaling those practices through virtual networks, and helping districts redesign professional development to be more collaborative, personalized and relevant. Prior to the Gates Foundation, Carina was Executive Director of the Chez Panisse Foundation in Berkeley, CA. She has worked in education for over 20 years and held leadership positions at the national, state and district levels.

Dominica Rice

Advisor

Dominica Rice-Cisneros is a chef, entrepreneur, mother, wife, community activist and owner of Cosecha Cafe in Oakland, California. Over 30 years, Dominica worked with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, interned with Alex Lee at Restaurant Daniel, and worked with Antonio Rivera in Mexico City. In 2017, Dominica was inducted into the Les Dames d’Escoffier, a group of women leaders in food, and named one of the “Female Titans of the Bay Area Food Scene.” Dominica believes that every single person deserves access to high-quality food and champions women of all ages and stages of life in the restaurant industry. Dominica is a 2nd generation Mexican-American with family ties to Chihuahua, Mexico. She is inspired by traditional Mexican recipes and perfecting Chicana Heritage cooking.

Harold McGee

Advisor

Harold McGee is an internationally recognized authority on the chemistry of food and cooking. He is author of On Food and Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen, The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore, and Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes. For five years he wrote “The Curious Cook,” a column on science and food, for the New York Times. Since 2010, he has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University in their course “Science and Cooking: from Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science.”

Matt Belasco

Advisor

Matt Belasco has over 25 years in the Education management field. Currently, as the Director of Maintenance, Operations, and Transportation for the Pittsburg Unified School District (PUSD), Matt is working to institute a Net Zero Energy operation district-wide. Since taking the post, he has reduced the use of pesticides and chemicals grounds-wide and has procured a new, zero emission, fully electric fleet of school busses. Previously, Matt served as Director of Child Nutrition at PUSD, where he leveraged partnerships with NGOs to overhaul the district meal service to provide healthier, scratch-cooked, locally grown options and increase participation in school lunch. He instituted school gardens, cooking programs, and a mobile farmer’s market to distribute fresh, affordable produce to parents and students from the school harvest. As a result of his success in school meal transformation, Matt, along with students from his district, were invited by the White House to participate in the Fall Harvest of the White House garden with First Lady Michelle Obama.

Michael Pollan

Advisor

Michael Pollan is the author of How to Change Your Mind and five New York Times bestsellers, including Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual; In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto; and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In 2010, Pollan was named one of the world’s most influential people in the TIME 100. He is the Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice of Non-Fiction at Harvard University and the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. In addition to teaching, he lectures widely on food, agriculture, health and the environment.

Olivier De Schutter

Advisor

Olivier De Schutter was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food between 2008 and 2014. He is now co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) as well as a member of the EAT Scientific Advisory Board, and a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He teaches at the University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium and at SciencesPo in Paris.

Melissa Ho, PhD

Board Chair

Melissa D. Ho is passionate about driving initiatives and partnerships that ensure the sustainability and resilience of global food systems and freshwater ecosystems. For more than 20 years, Melissa has served as a scientist, policy advisor, and program manager in the agriculture development and conservation sectors. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of Freshwater & Food at WWF-US, where she led integrated teams addressing the two biggest threats to nature and climate: agriculture and infrastructure. Previously, Melissa held senior roles at both U.S. bilateral aid agencies, USAID and MCC. She also served in various roles in the U.S. Congress, including as Agriculture Policy Advisor to then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and was a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she developed the agricultural water management portfolio during the early years of the Agriculture Development team. Melissa has worked on freshwater issues from various perspectives, including at the landscape level, in large-scale public irrigation systems, through community-based resource planning and management, across agricultural value chains, and in water technology delivery through the private sector. She holds a Ph.D. in plant physiology from Pennsylvania State University, an M.Sc. in soil science (plant-water relations) from UC Davis, and a B.Sc. in Environmental Systems from Cornell University. Melissa lives with her family on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Marc Friend

Board Treasurer

Marc Friend is the Chief Executive Officer at Rapid. In his role as treasurer of the Charlie Cart Board, Marc brings more than 30 years experience with enterprise SaaS and consumer internet companies from startup to $250M+ as CEO, COO, CFO, board member, and VC investor. Marc has scaled operations globally, directed multiple turn-arounds and managed all aspects of operations, fundraising and investor relations. A health-conscious athlete, Marc is a 4-time Boston Marathon finisher, and a 3-time Ironman and triathlete. He holds a MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT. Marc lives in the Bay Area with his wife (a trained chef and cookbook author) and their children.

Claire Cochrane

Board of Directors

Claire Cochrane was most recently the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Vault Health, a national leader in telehealth and workforce screening, which was sold to Sterling Check in 2024. Prior to starting Vault, Claire was the Senior Director of Procurement and Logistics at Blue Apron where she led key elements of supply chain and operations. Claire is an avid ultramarathon runner completing both 50 and 100 mile races. She currently serves as a startup advisor through her work with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and holds a B.S. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Maryland.

Lauri Moss

Board of Directors

Prior to her retirement in 2022, Lauri served in various executive management roles in corporate and investment banking and financial services. For nearly 40 years, Lauri focused on sales management, marketing, new product development, and operations at firms in New York City, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley. Lauri brings extensive leadership, business management, and governance experience to her board roles. In addition to serving on Charlie Cart’s board, Lauri also serves on the boards of the Montana Science Center and Befrienders Bozeman. Lauri resides in Bozeman, Montana, with her husband, Marc, and their two rescue dogs, Leo and Ralph. She enjoys adventure travel and all things involving great food and wine.

Kamran Husain

Board of Directors

Kamran Husain is a senior finance executive, board member & advisor. He most recently served as the Chief Accounting Officer of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and SVB Financial Group from 2008 through 2019. Prior to joining SVB, Kamran was Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Greater Bay Bancorp, senior audit manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and corporate finance analyst at Kidder, Peabody. Kamran has an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University. Kamran was born in Pakistan and came to the US in 1985. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Jessica Applegren

Board of Directors

Jessica Appelgren is Senior Vice President of Communications and Marketing at Palmetto, where she leads brand strategy and positioning for the climate technology company’s clean energy and home electrification solutions. With over two decades of experience in sustainability and climate communications, Jessica brings deep expertise in scaling mission-driven companies and transformative technologies.

Previously, Jessica oversaw marketing and communications for the project portfolio at X, The Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X), where she focused on advancing breakthrough climate technologies. Before X, she spent seven years as Vice President of Communications and Marketing at Impossible Foods, helping grow the company from its early stages while building its revolutionary brand and market presence in sustainable food technology.

Jessica spends as much time as she can running, hiking, surfing and skiing with her two kids, and lives in Oakland, CA.