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