Our Board

Rachel Bien

Public Policy Committee Chair

Rachel Bien is a Partner at Outten & Golden LLP in Los Angeles, California, and a Co-Chair of its Class & Collective Action Practice Group. Rachel represents employees across all industries in systemic wage and hour cases.  Before relocating to Los Angeles in 2016, Rachel practiced in New York City where she was involved in several class action cases on behalf of restaurant workers that helped to expose the industry’s illegal tip theft practices and ushered in greater compliance by restaurants.  In Los Angeles, Rachel has continued to represent workers in large scale cases, including thousands of Lyft and Uber drivers who allege they have been unlawfully misclassified as independent contractors. Rachel is deeply engaged in policy issues affecting workers and is an active member of the National Employment Law Association’s efforts to combat interpretations of the law that would scale back the rights of workers, including by the Trump Administration’s Labor Department.

John debary

Co-Founder and Board President

After nearly ten years working in New York City’s bar and restaurant industry, John co-founded the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation as a means to address quality-of-life issues and increase organized activism in the restaurant worker population. Starting out as a bartender at the acclaimed neo-speakeasy PDT (Please Don’t Tell) in 2008, John transitioned to working for the Momofuku restaurant group serving as their corporate Bar Director until 2018. 

As an author John contributes to publications such as Liquor.com, Bloomberg Pursuits, PUNCH, and was the deputy editor of Food and Wine Magazine’s annual cocktail book. He is also the author of a forthcoming cocktail book, to be published by Clarkson potter in 2020. 

Prior to entering hospitality, John worked for the Civilian Complaint Review Board of New York City, investigating allegations of police misconduct. John received his BA in East Asian History from Columbia College, and lives in the Lower East Side. 

Eden Egziabher

Eden Gebre Egziabher is the owner of Makina Cafe, the first Ethiopian/Eritrean food truck based in New York City.  She opened her food truck in 2017 and has grabbed the attention of many foodies as well as few press. Makina Cafe has been featured on NYTimes, Good Morning America, Time Out Magazine, NY Post and many more.  Her food truck adds diversity to competitive NYC food scene.  Prior to opening Makina Cafe, Eden worked as Director of Marketing for a hospitality group based in Brooklyn, NY.  Eden holds an MBA in Marketing from Fordham University and BS in Business Administration from USC. Eden has worked in the hospitality industry for over a decade from front of the house to handling marketing and now running her own business. 

Caroline Hatchett

Communications Committee Chair

Caroline is senior editor at Plate and writes for The Washington Post, Robb Report, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Garden & Gun, and more. For the first decade of her career, she interviewed and tasted with hundreds of restaurant professionals a year, distilling trends and recognizing thought leaders in StarChefs’ Rising Stars magazine and awards series. She directed programming for the International Chefs Congress, an industry-only symposium attended by 2,000 chefs, beverage professionals, and business leaders. Caroline is a graduate of the University of Georgia and Le Cordon Bleu Paris; she has worked as a banquet prep cook and was fired from her last serving job.

Mr. DANA A. KOTEEN

Governance Committee Chair

Dana Koteen brings his passion for hospitality and industry expertise to his role as Co-Founder of MISEbox. Born out of his own frustration with inefficiencies within the restaurant industry, MISEbox's intuitive platform empowers managers to maintain and communicate consistent information about the business from a single place, creating clarity for employees, and ultimately improving work culture, daily performance, and profitability.

During a career that spans over 20 years, Dana has worked with more than 50 diverse brands including TGI Fridays, Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, Great Wolf Resorts, and Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). His operations experience includes every role from busboy to service director. He eventually served as the first-ever HR business partner at USHG’s Union Square Events, where he managed a human resource function for thousands of employees.

tiffany langston

Board Secretary

Tiffany is a storyteller, content creator, and digital strategist with over a decade of experience at the intersection of the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. She is currently the Communications Officer at Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and previously led marketing efforts for Good+Foundation, Nonprofit Finance Fund, WaterAid America, and Philanthropy New York, respectively. She is a James Beard-nominated writer, and in her spare time, she plays poker, figure skates and volunteers with the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, and Meals on Wheels.  

Zachary Litif 

Grantmaking & Nonprofit Partnerships Committee Chair

Zachary is currently working as an in-house consultant with Support Center for Nonprofit Management to launch their new Organizational Navigator Program. Over the past two years, Zach has transitioned his career from intellectual property litigation, at Pepper Hamilton LLP, in Boston, MA, to focusing on capacity building and program development within the nonprofit and government sectors. Zach returned to New York City in August 2017, after a transamerica bicycle trip to participate in the Coro Fellowship. Since returning to NYC, Zach has consulted for the Department of Design and Construction, building a Virtual Reality Program for the STEAM High School Summer Internship Program; worked with Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, reestablishing the One Fair Wage Coalition and aiding research into after-hours childcare; and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation to design an automated resource directory for Leadership Development programs available to New Yorkers.

lynnette Marrero

Over the past 17 years, Lynnette Marrero has cultivated a new generation of cocktail bartenders and elevated the level of craft of mixology at internationally renowned bars and restaurants and as a consultant for brands and top spirit’s and beverage companies with her company DrinksAt6. She is currently the Bar Director for Llama Inn, Brooklyn, NY.

Lynnette is the President LUPEC NYC an organization to promote women bartenders while raising funds for women’s based charities. She co-created and produced Speed Rack, a global cocktail competition for women bartenders that raises money for breast cancer related charities.. Marrero has judged the renowned Global Cocktail Competitions, presented industry seminars at International cocktail festivals, was the 2016 Ambassador of the Chile Cocktail Week. She was an inaugural Honoree at the Dames hall of Fame at Tales of the cocktail, and in 2009 Marrero was honored by the James Beard Awards as one of America’s Leading Female Mixologists. Marrero was named Food and Wine with Fortune Magazine’s Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink 2015 and recently names Wine Enthusiasts Mixologist/Brand Ambassador of the year 2016.

Alex Pemoulie

Co-Founder

Alex Pemoulie lives in her hometown of Seattle, Washington and is the Director of Finance for Sea Creatures Restaurant Group and co-owner of Mean Sandwich. Before returning to Seattle in 2015, Alex co-owned and operated Thirty Acres restaurant in Jersey City, NJ with her husband and worked as the Director of Finance for Momofuku in New York City. She and her husband have an opinionated and charismatic soon-to-be four year old. Alex received her BA from the University of Chicago and her MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Sam penix

Events Committee Vice Chair

Sam Penix is the co-owner and chief executive officer of Everyman Espresso. With three locations in New York City Everyman Espresso has been named the number one coffee shop in the U.S.  In 2015 Sam was awarded Zagat’s 30 under 30 culinary game changers redefining the industry. He’s also been certified as a U.S. Barista Championship judge. His passion for community has created magical cafes across the city of new york that combine high quality beverages and physical spaces where neighbors form transformative connections.

John Reyna

John Reyna is the Managing Attorney at the Texas Hospitality and Non-profit Law Center, PLLC. John’s prior work experience in the hospitality and nonprofit industries is the foundation for his passion for representing those who nourish their communities. His hospitality management roles included restaurant manager, sommelier, banquet manager, and executive steward; John also holds a WSET Level 3 Award in Wines. His nonprofit experience is similarly varied. He has served as the executive director of a nonprofit educational organization. He is on the board of directors of Lift Collective and is an advisor to Hispanics in Wine and Another Round Another Rally. Utilizing both his hospitality and legal background, John is a professor at the University of North Texas at Dallas. At the School of Business, he teaches Restaurant Management and Beverage Management courses. John and his wife live in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and together they own a beverage consulting company, Teakwood Tavern Hospitality, LLC. 

Pim Techamuanvivit

Pim Techamuanvivit is the chef/owner of Nari and Kin Khao in San Francisco, and the Executive Chef of Nahm in Bangkok. She was born and raised in Thailand.

As a pioneering food blogger, she started the campaign Menu for Hope to rally her food-obsessed readers to help alleviate hunger in the world. Menu for Hope raised over 300K for the UN World Food Programme, mostly through smaller $ donations of under $50. In 2014, she opened her first restaurant, Kin Khao, which went on to earn a Michelin star the following year. In 2018, she took the helm of the renowned Nahm in her hometown of Bangkok. Last year she opened her second restaurant in San Francisco, Nari. She was a finalist in the Best Chef, California category for the James Beard Foundation Award in 2020.

Paola Velez

Paola Valez is Executive Pastry Chef at Maydan and Compass Rose in Washington, DC. A James Beard Award Nominated Pastry Chef, Velez was raised both in New York City and the Dominican Republic. She has become an advocate for equitably sourced food and sustainability. Velez uses her resources to help her communities and the restaurants she works with to make impactful change. She is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in 2009. She is Co-Founder of Doña Dona, a Latin American popup to benefit Ayuda DC an organization that supports the restaurant industry Undocumented workforce, as well as Bakers Against Racism a worldwide bake sale that has raised over $1.9 Million for organizations that support Black Lives and Black communities globally.