Meet the team

Our Leadership

Through combined careers in advocacy, impact, policy, and cooking Laurie A. Watkins, Chef Andrew Zimmern, and Chef Spike Mendelsohn come together to create the perfect alchemy of experience for The Cook’s Collective.

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.

Spike Mendelsohn

Founding Collective Advisor

Spike is a celebrity chef, entrepreneur and food policy advocate. In an effort to put his passion for food equity and education into action, Spike began working with organizations like DC Central Kitchen as a chef ambassador and contributor, and was named the first chairman of DC’s Food Policy Council.

Board of directors

Laurie A. Watkins

Executive Chairwoman, Washington, DC

Susan Ozawa Perez, PhD.

Director, Los Angeles, CA

Hari Cameron

Director, Rehoboth Beach, DE

collective advisors

Spike Mendelsohn

Washington, DC

Johnny Spero

Washington, DC

Dr. Sarah Allen, Ph.D

Neuropsychologist
Haddon Heights, NJ

Kurt Evans

Philadelphia, PA

Shay Lavi

Atlanta, GA

Nicholas Elmi

Philadelphia, PA

Jenna Watson,

REGISTERED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR & CERTIFIED GRIEF RECOVERY SPECIALIST ORLANDO, FL

 

Matthew Cooper

Bentonville, AR

Ben Kaplan

Boston, MA

Hari Cameron

Rehoboth Beach, DE

Ingrid Hoffmann

Miami, FL

Karl Schneider

REGISTERED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR INTERN, FERNANDINA BEACH, FL

Whitney Otawka

Savannah, GA

Michelle Kwak

Boise, ID

Katherine Miller

Washington, DC 

Judy Ni

Philadelphia, PA

Danny Lee

Washington, DC

Kris Hall

UNITED KINGDOM

Erin Boyle

DENVER, CO

Justin Smith

SEATTLE, WA

Kaitlynn Perez-Mockett

atlanta, ga

Jess Pfeffer

atlanta, ga

Colette Kessler

Brookyn, NY

Catarina Bill

houston, tx