Cooperative Development Program Manager
Equal Exchange
Julia Baumgartner is the Cooperative Development Program Manager at Equal Exchange, an alternative trade organization and worker-owned cooperative. Julia manages a USAID-funded award that strengthens small-scale agricultural cooperatives that are part of Equal Exchange’s many supply chains. Her work currently focuses on supporting ten coffee, cocoa, banana, sugarcane and avocado cooperatives throughout Latin America through locally led and designed initiatives. Julia holds a Master of Development Practice from the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Originally from Wisconsin, Julia studied and lived in Madison, Wisconsin for many years, where she first became immersed in the many thriving cooperatives. For the last decade, Julia has been working in Latin America with fair trade coffee cooperatives in different capacities, including producer relations, coordinating delegations and implementing sustainable development projects. Julia is passionate about sustainability, gender equity and locally-led development. She lives in Portland, Oregon.