Meet the founder
DIANA LOVETT,
FOUNDER & CEO
Post graduation, Diana dove into grassroots-based social change in Ethiopia for the Ethiopian Children’s Fund, followed by a fellowship in the Netherlands for Humanity in Action. Upon her return to the US, Diana decided to learn more about creating change at the policy level and worked for Governor Bill Richardson of Santa Fe as a Legislative Analyst, where she focused on health and economic development issues in New Mexico.
From Santa Fe, Diana moved to New York City, where she gained experience in not-for-profit-based change as Director of Regional and International campaigns for “Keep A Child Alive,” singer Alicia Keys’ main charitable outlet. At Keep A Child Alive, Diana supervised treatment sites and created expansion strategies in five countries in Africa. From there, Diana went on to work for the Christie Company, as Director of Policy and Research, where she gained an understanding of the public/private partnership sector and aided in building social infrastructure and universities in developing countries.
As culmination of all of her experiences, Diana founded Cissé — a small business that combines her dedication to social responsibility by aiding small growers of cocoa to earn living wages, and her love of chocolate.
KELSEY BYRNE,
CFO
After graduating Dartmouth cum laude, Kelsey worked for three years in asset backed credit at Morgan Stanley. Kelsey’s prior experiences at Worldstock and two terms studying abroad in Morocco and London introduced her to ways business can have an impact beyond the traditional bottom-line. So, she enrolled in the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth to pursue her MBA and to pivot her career to a role where she could drive impactful social change through business. Kelsey has worked with Cissé starting in the summer of 2014 and was delighted when they offered her the job of CFO upon graduating from Tuck. She is excited to be a part of a socially responsible team with such yummy, high quality products.
RACHAEL STYER,
DIRECTOR OF SALES
Rachael is Cissé’s Director of Sales, and is highly successful at growing same store sales and bringing on new channels of distribution. Rachael calls on Whole Foods Market, Kroger, Target, and a host of regional and national high-end retailers. Prior to joining the company in early 2013, Rachael worked at the Worldwatch Institute and the Environmental Working Group in Washington, DC, where she helped to advance critical environmental and agricultural legislation on the Hill through her research and writing.
She graduated from Yale University, where she was a contributing writer to the National Geographic Great Energy Challenge Blog, the Yale Undergraduate Law Review and earned a B.A.in Environmental Studies, with Distinction. Her undergraduate thesis on the evolution of farming in Lancaster County, PA, won the Gaylord Donnelley Prize for outstanding interdisciplinary scholarship.
KELSEY HOPPING,
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Kelsey comes to us from the advertising world with six years at agencies in NYC. Most recently she was an Account Supervisor at Silver + Partners, a boutique creative agency where she managed their Business Development Program and worked on clients such as Qdoba Mexican Grill, Honest Tea and MSG Networks. Prior to that, Kelsey worked at mcgarrybowen where she was a key account person on Marriott International and managed eight of their brands. She also spent time at Crispin Porter + Bogusky where she worked on VW, Method and Nike Running.
Kelsey graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a B.S. in Marketing, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and french bulldog. She is obsessed with food and loves anything cooking, baking or restaurant related.
ABBY HARRISON,
OPERATIONS MANAGER
Passionate for healthy and delicious ingredients, Abby found her way into the food industry by her love for cooking and baking. She decided to further her education in the subject and earned her BS in Food Science and Operations Management at Cornell University.
After graduation, she pursued the natural beverage industry, becoming a key member at two small and local cold-pressed juice beverage companies. During her time at Red Jacket Orchards, she enhanced the QC programs and developed a new juice beverage that utilizes an herbal infusion of guayusa leaves. In 2014, she joined the botanically-focused team at Temple Turmeric as their first Food Scientist, where she implemented a juice HACCP plan, enhanced ingredient processing yields, and developed two new turmeric juice beverages on the shelves today.