Executive Team

Keith Cooper, Executive Director
Born in Saigon, Vietnam, BA Yale University, MFA Ohio State

Keith, who co-founded our social venture over 10 years ago, is now our team leader. He's shifted from being "granola guy" to jack-of-all trades recipe man, data guy, human resources and idea guy, webmaster, marketing manager and chief blogger—doing basically whatever it takes to bring our team together and keep our social venture moving forward and rooted in our mission.

Rebecca Garland, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Born in Massachusetts, BA Yale University, Ed.D Harvard University

Rebecca has been involved in the adult literacy field for over 25 years, as a teacher, career adviser, and counselor. She feels she has the best job in the world, hanging out with amazing people and giving them the chance to support this great organization.

Meggean Ward, Director of Operations and Training
Born in Rhode Island, BA Rhode Island College, MA University College London

Meggean came to us with a background in both the music business and refugee job development. She really ought to have a huge head from all the hats she wears--but she doesn’t. She oversees operations including production, fulfillment, farmers markets, plus program oversight, trainee onboarding, and case management.

Full Time

Saad Awad, Production and Training Manager
Born in Damascus, Syria

Saad has worked in the food industry for his entire adult life. From 2006-2018, he owned and operated his own restaurant and catering business in southern Rhode Island and sold Mediterranean products in local markets. Saad enjoys working with various cuisines and is excited to be a part of Beautiful Day's operations.

Jules Bibonima, Tech + Exec Assistant
Born in Democratic Republic of Congo, BA Wheaton College

At Beautiful Day nobody pages Jeeves--but we are all constantly calling for Jules who assists with all things related to our CRM, E-commerce, desktop support, HR, plus a wide range of odd jobs.  Jules is interested in eventually running his own business and we're trying to make sure he's ready for anything.

Part Time

Paula Cunanan, Visual Content and Digital Marketing Consultant
Born in the Philippines, BA Holy Cross, working on Masters from Brandeis

Paula moved to Providence when she was 8. She has worked with local nonprofits and businesses including Beautiful Day doing graphic design, photography, and videography for the past five years. In her free time, you will see Paula cooking Filipino food or training Muay Thai at her martial arts studio.

Iman Diriye, Kitchen Assistant
Born in Somalia

Iman, originally from Somalia, went through our kitchen training program in 2016. Though he's never been to school, he’s adept at communicating with his hands and has become an experienced granola chef. He helps organize every shift and tutors each new trainee to master a new set of skills.

Britta Hart, Youth Program Teacher
Born in Maryland

Britta has a background in culinary, teaching ESL, and youth work, and started with Beautiful Day as our Kitchen Trainer. She is now shifting positions to teach our (mostly virtual) Youth Program. She says she feels lucky to be combining so many of her interests in one position within such a diverse and beautiful organization. 

Joan McLaughlin, Sales and Growth
Born and raised right here in Providence

After traveling nationally and internationally during her sales career, Joan is dedicated to spreading the word about Beautiful Day's flavors of the world--locally, regionally, and nationally. You can find her out and about engaging buyers, sharing our story, listening to our customers, sampling products, and contributing to helping new Rhode Islanders thrive.

Maliss Men Coletta, Youth Program
Born in Cambodia, BA University of RI, MA Brown University

Born during the Killing Field, Maliss spent her childhood in various refugee camps, before settling in Providence RI in 1989.  With her experience in community work and teaching, Maliss piloted our 2019-2020 youth training and continues to assist with this important program while homeschooling her adventurous and nature-loving twins. 

Evon Nano, Granola Chef
Born in Baghdad, Iraq

Evon has been with us almost from the very beginning when we were perfecting our recipes and slapping home-printed labels on tin-tie bags. She has coached nearly every trainee in our kitchen. If you think our granola is perfect--well you can bet it's because of her.

Vivian Nano, Administrative Assistant
Born in Baghdad, Iraq

Our admin assistant for the last six year, managing various aspects of bookkeeping, invoicing, customer service, payroll, keeping us organized and generally holding us together.

Isaac Nzayume, Farmers' Market Sales
Born in Democratic Republic of Congo

Isaac resettled in Providence after 18 years in a camp in Rwanda. He holds a full time job at another company, but loves giving back to the refugee community by helping refugee youth learn how to take on their first job.

Antoine Nzeyimana, Operations Assistant
Born in Burundi, Studied Law in Cote d'Ivoire

Antoine worked with Jesuit Refugee Services doing research in Chad on child soldiers. He’s a family man with a full time job, but still assists Beautiful Day with youth training and wide variety of operations support.

Marie Clemence Shabani, Farmers' Market Sales
Born in Democratic Republic of Congo, University student at URI

As one of the first youth to participate in our training, Marie has helped grow our services for youth from from an idea into a program. Marie is a proud activist for feminism, equal rights and assisting refugees through trauma and resettlement.

Maitham Talal, Farmers' Market Sales
Born in Baghdad, Iraq

Maitham has also been with our company nearly from the very beginning specializing in storytelling and sales. If you ever stopped by our Hope Street or Winter Markets we hope you had a chance to connect with him or various members of his family.

Zaid Wadia, Shipping Manager
Born in Baghdad, Iraq

Zaid started in the kitchen, then took over our first farmers’ market, and now oversees all of our shipping and fulfillment. He keeps pretty busy with another full time job, not to mention 4 kids including a pair of rambunctious pre-school twins.

link text