Media and Presentations
ClimateCAP 2025 MBA Summit
It was truly a joy to be part of this panel with colleagues who have inspired all my work, and the Fibers Fund in particular, in so many ways! Thank you to Leticia Corona for designing this panel alongside Sofia Lyons and moderating our discussion, and to Rebecca Burgess and Lewis Perkins for the chance to be in conversation, in person! It was also inspiring to meet so many dedicated and accomplished students in MBA and EMBA programs across the country—I came away with much-needed hope and inspiration.
Impact Alpha “Glimmers of Hope” Perspectives
I consistently gain so much value from the coverage in Impact Alpha, so it was especially exciting to share perspectives from our work at the Fibers Fund for this 2025 look-ahead piece by Jessica Pothering. We are excited to be part of many of the key trends Jessica mentions for 2025: emerging funds and managers, a focus on under-invested sectors and under-recognized founders, and creative use of catalytic and integrated capital. Thanks Impact Alpha for the great coverage!
Textile Exchange 2024 Conference
It was an honor to moderate session 3A., Financial Mechanisms to Support Material Producers with great speakers including Dianna Bagnall from Soil Health Institute, Daren Abney from U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, and Henry Tallott of the New Zealand Merino Company. I also shared info and gathered a lot of valuable feedback about our ongoing work on the Textile Exchange Regenerative Agriculture Outcome Framework.
Impact Alpha’s “The Liist” Feature
The Fibers Fund was thrilled to be included in ImpactAlpha's The Liist, a monthly curated list of funds, in a feature on flexible debt funds. Thanks to Impact Alpha editor Jessica Pothering for the great coverage in both the article and Impact Alpha's podcast! (https://lnkd.in/dhc5UyT7). I think Jessica summed our work perfectly: “So Fibers Fund, they’re providing not just debt, they’re also providing catalytic grants and more flexible financing structures to help [fiber producers] support their farming operations and their fiber production. And then they also have a special dedicated facility for Black founders of fiber companies, because they recognize that the path to a more sustainable textile industry should be just and equitable.” Please take a look and listen to learn more about our work!
Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit
It was great to have the chance to join a panel focused on “Financial Solutions to Enable the Transition” at the Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit. This new conferences focused on a key intersection that is central to my work with both Textile Exchange and the Fibers Fund.
Transformative 25 Webinar
The Transformative 25 is an annual list of funds, banks and initiatives that are demonstrating the power of integrated capital to reimagine the finance system to work for people and the planet. The list highlights the work of funds employing integrated capital, using creative financial tools, that focus on social, relational, and ecological returns, and that engage with ownership and governance for equity. I had the chance to share more about our work on the Fibers Fund on October 18, along with representatives from other agriculture-focused on funds.
Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum - 2023
Attended the RFSI 2023 Forum in Denver with my Fibers Fund Co-Managing Director Teju Adisa-Farrar to represent our strategy at this high-energy gathering. Especially honored to have the chance to moderate a panel with Skya Ducheneaux of Akiptan and Lolita Nunn of Potlikker Capital on “"Re-imagining How Capital Can Support Communities Who’ve Been Systemically Left Behind.”
Catalyzing Change: SAFSF and Fibershed Announce the Launch of the Fibers Fund
Recognizing that natural fiber and dye crops can and should play a key role in vibrant, economically viable regenerative agriculture, SAFSF and Fibershed joined forces in 2022 to develop a solution to support smaller U.S. natural fiber and textile producers and processors with a specific focus on environmental equity. In April 2023, SAFSF and Fibershed announced the launch of the Integrated Capital Fibers Fund with Mission Driven Finance. The Fund is one of several levers in a new phase of work on fibers for SAFSF that integrates innovative financing, business technical assistance, and public policy solutions to support structural reform.
Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum - 2022
Represented SAFSF and spoke at the dynamic RFSI 2022 Forum in Denver on the “Role of Philanthropic Capital” in regenerative food and fiber systems investment. Especially honored to have the chance to interview Mark Watson of Potlikker Capital as part of the session. A detailed recap of my presentation is available on RFSI’s News Page.
Croatan Conversation: Investing in Regenerative Fiber Value Chains
It was a pleasure to join admired colleagues Molly Hemstreet of The Industrial Commons and Opportunity Threads, Eric Henry of TS Designs, Latashia Redhouse of Intertribal Agriculture Council and host Josh Humphreys of Croatan Institute for a conversation on growing needs and opportunities associated with investing in regenerative farm-to-fabric value chains.
Textile Exchange 2021 Conference, Dublin, Ireland
Our conference session, Textile Exchange’s Regenerative Agriculture Landscape Analysis: Key Finding and Next Steps, provided a preview of this forthcoming report for a hybrid in-person and remote audience of textile and apparel brands, suppliers, and sustainability NGOs.
Croatan Conversation: Intersectional Impact Across Food, Fiber, and Finance
This conversation kicked off a series of Croatan Conversations to explore how we can design, enact, and implement new relationships between food, fiber, and finance through the lens of the intersectional impacts that these systems provide.
Vogue Business: “Investors like sustainability. But they forget about nature.”
Featured story by Rachel Cernansky on the opportunity for investors to support U.S.-based natural fiber businesses with investment dollars, with a special emphasis on the gap in financing for people of color-led fiber system businesses.
Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum (RFSI)
Webinar presentation for funders and investors in this national network to present the SAFSF Fibers Roadmap, highlight three of the report’s 12 Case Study businesses, and share the Roadmap’s “Lever 1” $5M Catalytic Capital Fund as an opportunity for attendees.
One Earth Philanthropy
Featured story on the SAFSF Fibers Roadmap on the One Earth Philanthropy website.
SAFSF Launch Webinar Series
Three-session webinar series for funders and investors to launch the SAFSF Fibers Roadmap, highlight the report’s 12 Case Study businesses, and dig deeper into the Roadmap’s proposed Levers and next actions.
Textile Exchange 2020 Conference
Developed and moderated session on “Regenerative Agriculture and Regenerative Finance: Findings and Case Studies from the SAFSF Fibers Roadmap.” Panel featured Zachary Angelini, Timberland and Jim Kleinschmit, Other Half Processing.
Inside Philanthropy: Will “Dirt to Shirt” Become the Next “Farm to Table”? A Group of Funders Hopes So
October 2020 article by Michael Kavate on the launch of the SAFSF Fibers Roadmap. “But for all of the focus on what’s on our plates, there has been very little focus on what’s in our closets. . . . A report due out this week, “The Fibers Roadmap,” is part of an effort to rally philanthropy to change that.”