A former history teacher who lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This island not only has incredible beaches, but it’s also a coffee-producing country with a fantastic coffee consumption culture. Karla is the co-owner of Cafe Comunion in Santurce. A café led by the sole idea that coffee is a community and has the undoubted force of bringing people together. Her path in coffee started in 2014 as a Spanish translator and editor for a Coffee Digital Magazine; she wanted to bring awareness to the lack of Spanish coffee-related resources for the LATAM community. This mission led her to spend the 2016 summer in Honduras to learn Coffee Quality Analysis and Sensory training at IHCAFE Escuela de Catadores, guided by ‘el maestro’ Carlos Pineda. In 2018, she won the Leadership, Equity, and Diversity scholarship by the Specialty Coffee Association. This scholarship aims to increase leadership diversity within the global coffee community by enabling professional development resources to people from underrepresented or marginalized communities. Through the Scholarship, Karla became an SCA Sensory Professional and Authorized SCA trainer. Karla was a Social Initiatives coordinator in projects such as The Women’s Center for Entrepreneurship by Peet’s Coffee. Based in Huila, Colombia, this Center trained 100 women farmers, all members of the coffee cooperative Coocentral, to build small businesses that complement and diversify coffee farming. The Center’s curriculum supported that objective by focusing on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, business model development, and business plan creation. Through 2018-2020 Karla collaborated with Sustainable Growers on their women programs in Colombia and Rwanda and with Laughing Man Foundation with their women and family-led initiatives in Peru. Karla believes that her role in coffee is to connect people throughout the coffee supply chain. She wholeheartedly believes that we can collaborate and make this industry better through transparency, openness, and humanity.