Melissa Kogut
Melissa Kogut became Executive Director of Chefs Collaborative in August 2007. She previously served as executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, a state-wide organization that advocates for women’s reproductive freedom. She has a long history of effective advocacy, program development and fundraising. In 2006, Melissa received the Abigail Adams Award from the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, which recognizes and honors outstanding women leaders.
Having worked in the restaurant industry, Melissa has always been interested in the sustainable food movement. “This is a critical moment in the growth of Chefs Collaborative. The public is becoming much more aware of the problems in our food supply, sparking greater interest in the sustainable food movement. Chefs Collaborative has a unique opportunity to reach and engage chefs, who in turn are respected by the public as credible spokespeople about the value of local food and sustainable practices.”
Melissa is an avid hiker and loves cooking for friends and family. She grew up in Southern California and prides herself on knowing how to pick the perfect avocado.
Leigh Belanger 
Leigh is the Program Director for Chefs Collaborative, where she develops and directs educational initiatives aimed at making sustainability second nature for every chef in the U.S. She also researches, writes, and edits the Collaborative’s publications.
A Massachusetts native and a graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, Leigh has been food-focused since high school. She is working on her Masters degree in Food Studies at Boston University and contributes food -related stories to the Boston Globe and Edible Boston. She has a weakness for charcuterie, thrift stores, and music and food from New Orleans.
Elizabeth Kennedy
Elizabeth is the Development Associate at Chefs Collaborative. She spends her time recruiting new members and sponsors for the organization. She also serves as the liaison to the Chefs Collaborative chapters. Having worked in restaurants, Elizabeth has an appreciation for the hard work that goes into running a successful business and bringing delicious food to the table. She is the author of Chefs Collaborative’s monthly e-newsletter FreshNet and handles the day to day operations of the national office.
A French and Philosophy major at Connecticut College, Elizabeth had the opportunity to spend a semester in Paris where she sampled regional foods, visited wineries, and frequented the local markets. Elizabeth loves to dine out — especially at CC member restaurants. On the weekends, you can find Elizabeth cooking for family and friends, at the beach, or rooting for her hometown team the Boston Red Sox.
Anne Obelnicki
Anne is the Project Coordinator for the 2009 RAFT heirloom vegetable grow-out. She spends her time coordinating a partnership between farmers, chefs, media members and the public; facilitating the delicious magic that happens when locally-grown, heirloom varieties of New England’s historically significant (and totally delicious!) fruits and vegetables are grown by awesome farmers and then put in the hands of talented area chefs.
Anne’s background includes working on small, organic farms, cooking in restaurants, a degree in culinary arts from the CIA, a Master’s Degree in Agriculture, Food and Environment at Tufts University and a lot of time spent doing sustainable agriculture education and outreach.
Anne spends her non-work time on other delicious food-related activities: buying whole local pigs and making her own prosciutto and pancetta in the basement, coordinating sausage-making parties, root cellaring, canning, growing rare and unusual vegetables in her backyard, raising egg-laying ducks, scouring the farmer’s market for tasty items and otherwise obsessing over what she eats and feeds to her family and friends.
