Born in Los Angeles, Leah began her career in coffee in the San Francisco Bay Area, managing cafés and retail shops. She later left the Bay Area for Portland, Oregon where she worked in retail coffee and café management for seven years.
Many would have been content to rest on their laurels after working in these two specialty coffee epicenters, but not Leah. Instead,she moved to Southeast Asia, where she managed a roaster retailer business for 12 years, covering Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan. She returned to the United States in 2008 and that same year began working for Mercanta as our regional manager in North America.
Leah is an avid photographer and is responsible for many of the excellent images you see across the Mercanta website.
She has more than a decade of experience as a Cup of Excellence juror, and has judged for the WBC and USBC.