Kavita (Kuh-vee-thuh) joined our board in August 2023. In her current role, she serves as the Co-Executive Director of RAFI-USA, where she worked 2013 to 2016 and then returned in 2023 as Land Access Director. She brings more than a decade of experience in agriculture across nonprofit, for-profit, and cooperative sectors. She is especially passionate about making financing more accessible and equitable for farmers — particularly those historically excluded from traditional financial systems. A former financial planner and longtime advocate for just food systems, Koppa’s blend of systems thinking, collaborative leadership, and humor (not to mention spreadsheet skills) makes her a considerable asset on our board.

In addition to her work at RAFI-USA, Kavita served as co-owner at Money Positive, a worker-owned financial planning firm focused on helping those who are often excluded from the conventional financial industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in geography and biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a dual MBA/MA in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Kavita can usually be found frolicking through the woods of North Carolina and getting overly-excited about plants.