Laurie A. Watkins

Founder & CEO

Laurie has spent the last 20 years solving policy and political puzzles, influencing large-scale change, and challenging the intersection between wellness and readiness in the workplace. She’s a cook, author of the health and wellness book, Go From Stressed to Strong, a mental health advocate and survivor, and former policy and political advisor to Barack Obama. With a personality as bright as her native Florida sun, a curiosity for exploring other cultures through food, a gift for bringing people together around common causes, and a goal of improving mental health outcomes in the food and beverage industry, The Cook’s Collective was born.

Andrew Zimmern

Co-Founder & Collective Advisor

Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard award-winning tv and radio personality, chef, writer, and mental health advocate. Andrew has devoted his life to exploring and promoting cultural acceptance, tolerance and understanding through food. He helped open and run a dozen restaurants, and at the same time was also an addict spiraling out of control. After a year spent living on the streets, an intervention by close friends brought Andrew to the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota, where he transformed his life around sobriety.