Our Staff
Andrew Delmonte
Executive Director
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Andrew is an organizer, facilitator, and business developer who believes in the power of communities and workplaces to govern themselves. A lifelong resident of Buffalo's West Side, Andrew has 10+ years' experience assisting cooperatives, social enterprises, independent small business owners, and frontline community organizations with planning and management decisions, financial strategy, governance, group dynamics, and conflict resolution.
Mike Zak
Cooperative Developer
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Mike is a seeker of knowledge, justice, and sustainability. He was the Co-Founder and a worker-owner of Gro-op, an aquaponic vertical farm, for the past 10 years. Mike co-created Gro-op as a model of what an ethical business could be: ever striving towards utilizing the most environmentally sustainable urban farming practices, empowering workers through democratic cooperative ownership, and investing in its community by providing on the job training programs for Opportunity Youth in Buffalo's East and West Sides.
Michael Heubusch
Cooperative Developer
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Michael is a community organizer and economist who works as a cooperative developer and educator for Cooperation Buffalo. Michael began their professional relationship with Cooperation Buffalo as an intern while they were a graduate student at Buffalo State College, where they graduated with an M.A. in Applied Economics in December 2018. Their areas of interest include cooperative economics, radical political economy, and macroeconomic policy.
Cecilia Johnson
Cooperative Developer
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Cecilia is an organizer and social media manager who is passionate about working to build a new economy that meets everyone’s needs. After spending more than a decade at a large international bank, Cecilia was glad to leave behind the extractive, exclusionary, and profit driven big banking industry and join the movement to normalize non-extractive financing and democratize our workplaces with Cooperation Buffalo.
Our Board
Harper Bishop
Director
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Harper is a Worker-Owner at Rose Jade Consulting Cooperative. He brings over 15 years of experience in the realms of economic development, nonprofit management, and community organizing. He has advocated for progressive policies at the local, state, and federal levels, as well as been a political analyst for several organizations and media publications. Harper has trained hundreds of grassroots leaders in racial, economic, and social justice issues over the years. Most recently, he has also been the Executive Director of Our City Action Buffalo, which is part of an ever-growing movement to disrupt the political status quo through people-centered politics and co-governance structures in Buffalo, New York.
Adam Alas
Secretary
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A native of Staten Island, NY, Adam earned his BA in Sociology from SUNY Stony Brook, and his MSW from Washington University in St. Louis. Eight years later, Adam has worked mostly in the field of organized labor with experiences as a DEI educator and a college & career coach.
India Walton
Board Chair
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Born and raised on Buffalo’s East Side as one of six children, India became a full-time working mother at the age of just 14. She earned her GED while pregnant with twins who were born prematurely, an experience that inspired her to become a nurse in the same NICU where her boys’ lives were saved. As a healthcare worker, India became a representative in the 1199 SEIU union, standing up for both workers and patients from picket lines in Buffalo to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, where she was invited to speak at a national women’s rights rally in 2014.
Tori Kuper
Treasurer
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Tori Kuper is the Treasurer and co-founder of Cooperation Buffalo. Tori serves as Director for the School for Democratic Management at the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) where she supports the growing field of worker cooperative managers and technical assistance providers with the training, education, and tools they need to thrive.
Kathryn Franco
President
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Kathryn is a lover of community and connection. Having been raised in Buffalo, she is a proud product of Buffalo Public Schools and has witnessed the many changes to her city over the last decade. Having worked in non-profits ranging from medical to a non profit law firm, Kathryn has been a lifelong advocate. From policy work focused on racial and economic justice, to individual practice- Kathryn believes in the intersectionality of our lives and thus the need to make sure our solutions to problems are equally holistic.