I am the business owner of Rise & Grind Coffees. Our business was born in 2023, after gaining experience taking courses through the Specialty Coffee Association and Bald Guy Brew, two formative influences who narrowed the path to making my coffee roasting dream a reality.

In the words of the late Walt Disney, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” As an undergraduate college student at NC State, I was exposed to an introductory food science course as part of the common core curriculum. Unsuspectingly, it inspired me to think outside the box about coffee. I also had the opportunity to study abroad in Spain for three months, enjoying cafe con leche daily, and came home reinvigorated to do ‘something.’ At the time, my focus was on campus ministry and college access, which led me to Bladen County. I worked at West Bladen High School for two years as a college adviser, and there learned about coffee roasting at home from some fellow enthusiasts. After traveling to Nicaragua for a mission trip in 2016, I met ex-pats who started a farm in a local community to create jobs and boost the economy; the fire for starting my own business was further stoked.

In 2017, I met my partner in the midst of his own entrepreneurial journey and supported his goal of owning a small business. Soon thereafter, I moved to Columbia, SC, to study higher education at the University of South Carolina. While studying and working in the Office of Sustainability, my path kept drawing me back to coffee. I didn’t know how or where, but I hoped to open my own coffee business someday. Fast-forward 5 years, and here we are. This is just the beginning, but we are focused on providing high-quality coffees to our community.