Team

Madeline Pears was raised in Alexandria, Louisiana, and has built her career at the intersection of food, business, and community, splitting her time between Lafayette and New Orleans before pursuing graduate studies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In New Orleans, she deepened her commitment to food systems through volunteer and internship experiences with Edible Schoolyard and Grow Dat Youth Farm, while also serving as a manager at Willa Jean, a James Beard Award winning restaurant within the John Besh Restaurant Group.

She earned a dual MBA and MA in Food Studies from Chatham University, where she supported the Center for Regional Agriculture and Food Transformation as a workshop coordinator and food innovation lab coordinator. There she facilitated a 12 week market readiness program for small farm and food businesses, and she has since continued to work as a food business consultant both independently and with CRAFT for the past five years.

Supporting small businesses and restaurants has been a value of hers since childhood, and her love for food and the way it brings people together through growing, cooking, and sharing has fueled her passion to return home to Louisiana to do meaningful, community centered work. Most recently, she served as Program Coordinator for the Delta Regional Food Business Center, where she helped expand opportunities for small and mid sized producers and post harvest businesses across the Delta.