As presented to SCA members on August 30, the SCA Board of Directors, led by President Pamela Chng, nominated a group of seven professionals from a pool of dozens who responded to our annual call for nominations made in June. As the number of candidates this year is equal to the number of open seats, there is no need to proceed with a voting process, and the SCA Board has confirmed the seven professionals listed below as members of the SCA Board of Directors, in accordance with Section 7.4(f) of the SCA Bylaws.

The coffee sector is in constant flux. Increasingly our definitions of consumer, creator, and producer are blurring. The way we drink coffee is changing, even how we define the term “coffee” itself.

JENN RUGOLO, Specialty Coffee Association Innovation Officer, shares early insights from a project exploring the possibility of building a common language around green coffee identity.

Green coffee sales representative and author KOSTA KALLIVROUSIS offers insights and new marketing strategies that engage “digital natives,” the postmillennial generation that is evolving the relationship between brands and consumers.

The SCA’s Publications Manager, LAUREL CARMICHAEL, introduces a Coffee Science Foundation research project on the sensory impact of physical defects in green coffee, undertaken at the Coffee Excellence Center at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. 

Scholar and PhD candidate JORDAN BUCHANAN shares their research into the rise of the specialty café scene in Puebla state, Mexico, focusing on the journey and testimony of coffee-shop owners.

PhD student ANNA LUIZA SANTANA NEVES shares their research into Brazil’s everyday and culturally informed coffee and food pairings, from pão de queijo to chocolate.

Communications expert and researcher DANIEL MURAGA shares insights into Kenya’s domestic specialty coffee consumption, tracing how migration, economic shifts, and urbanization have fueled a dynamic local café and roasting scene, blurring the distinction between “producing country” and “consuming country.”

Writer and anthropologist ALEXA ROMANO and researcher and strategist VERA ESPÍNDOLA RAFAEL draw on two intentional dialogues, held at the Women-Powered Coffee Summit in 2024, to look at the value of dialogue to understand the needs and realities of coffee producers, particularly women.

En la Women Powered Coffee Summit 2024 (WPCS) se llevaron a cabo dos diálogos que la escritora y antropóloga ALEXA ROMANO y la investigadora y estratega VERA ESPÍNDOLA RAFAEL retoman para reflexionar sobre el valor del diálogo en la comprensión de las realidades y necesidades de los productores de café, en particular de las mujeres.

The partnership between the STORM Barista Attitude and World Barista Championship has been four years passion. These years have been full of challenges faced with heart. Four years of emotions shared along a path that transformed every encounter into an opportunity for growth.

The 2025 report shows specialty coffee consumption hitting a 14-year high.

Coffee is a subject that grows more intricate the deeper you explore it. This seems daunting at times, but the opportunity for endless learning is what draws so many of us to this field.

ANDRÉS MONTENEGRO, SCA Sustainability Director, provides an update on how the Sustainability Awards are evolving.

LUCAS TEIXEIRA shares the results of a study that used eye-tracking technology and mathematical modeling to explore how visual attention to specialty coffee labels influences consumer choices.

GUSTAVO PEÑA and JHON JAIRO VEGA DÍAZ share the results of a study with 52 smallholder farmers in Tolima, Colombia, exploring the challenges they encounter in accessing market information.

For her Master of Science in Climate Change and Development, MARÍA PAZ LOBO spent time in the coffee region of Amazonas, Peru, researching how the EUDR has and could change farmer livelihoods. She shares key findings from her dissertation. 

Para su Maestría Cambio Climático y Desarrollo, MARÍA PAZ LOBO estuvo un tiempo en el Departamento de Amazonas, Perú, investigando acerca de cómo el EUDR ya está impactando la vida de familias productores de café y potencialmente lo seguirá haciendo a futuro.

Dr. ERIKA KOSS discusses her PhD research that focuses on the experiences of women coffee farmers in Kenya, and a problem she names as the Gendered Coffee Paradox.

Co-founder of Cxffeeblack, BARTHOLOMEW JONES shares how we can use the method of sampling and the framework of Afrofuturism to reconnect to coffee’s Roots.