MEET The SFC-HQ TEAM
Erin Fletter, Food Geek in Chief |
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Erin is passionate about getting kids to not just eat, but actually crave healthy, creative food! She has an extensive background in the food and wine industry and loves to use that experience to craft new Sticky Fingers recipes that bring together fresh ingredients, global flavors, math, geography, nutrition, food history—and a big dash of tasty fun. Erin also writes terrible jokes each week about food that make everyone groan. Erin's three energetic young daughters are her first round of taste testers and she is never reluctant to push their culinary boundaries. In fact, Erin so much enjoyed introducing her family to a wide variety of foods that she wanted other families to have the same opportunity through Sticky Fingers Cooking. Erin grew up on the beaches of California and has lived in beautiful Colorado since 1996. Erin bought & transformed Sticky Fingers Cooking from a brick and mortar children’s cooking school to a 100% mobile cooking school in 2011. Sticky Fingers Cooking now has hundreds of cooking classes throughout Colorado, Illinois, Texas and beyond. |
Joe Hall, Director of Cultivation |
Joe brings his proven and savvy startup know-how and extensive experience in business development and marketing skills to Sticky Fingers Cooking. He played pivotal roles in widely varied start-ups in the Solar, Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Golf, Health and Wellness, and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle sectors. His very diverse startup experiences makes him passionate about cultivating more ‘cool’inary curiosity in kids to ever more communities by bringing the fabulously fun and truly tasty Sticky Fingers Cooking experience to many more young chefs. Did we also mention that Joe also a bit of a foodie himself, and makes a pretty mean San Francisco Seafood Cioppino and a very tasty Vietnamese Carmel Simmered Chicken dish. |
Amanda Adams, Web Database Diva |
Amanda is a former preschool teacher and Speech Pathologist who taught for the last 10 years. She is now a mom to three busy and happy kids of her own! She loves creating and cooking with natural foods and her newest hobby is aquaponics; raising her own fish and organic produce at HOME! Her love of working with kids combined with her passion for fun and natural foods led her to Sticky Fingers Cooking. Amanda started as an instructor with Sticky Fingers Cooking and now helps manage Sticky Fingers Cooking’s “virtual office” and maintains the database behind stickyfingerscooking.com scenes.
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Katie Brennan, Director of Operations & Optimism |
An accomplished doer of all things, Katie joined us in 2014. Her knowledge, expertise and momentum provide heart and soul for our entire SFC crew. Katie is not afraid to take on challenges! Her tenacity and ability to create happy order out of chaos led her to Sticky Fingers Cooking. Katie helps manage Sticky Fingers Cooking’s “virtual office” and is the secret sauce in SFC’s recipe for success. In the kitchen, she enjoys watching her husband cook and says their two kids are his biggest critics. She loves flash mobs, Josh Duhamel, llamas and tequila. She is a graduate of CU Boulder.
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Lauren Frontiera, Systems Specialist
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Lauren graduated with honors and received a degree in Business Administration with a minor in Entrepreneurship from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She studied abroad in Ireland and has since worked in marketing as well as in the kitchen! Lauren owned and operated her own granola business and also worked at a spectacular bakery in Arvada! While her role for SFC has changed over the years, her passion for good food, children, and education remains! When she's not working, you'll often find her exploring a new local coffee shop or restaurant, cooking up some plant-based deliciousness in her kitchen, or reading!
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Eileen Leno, Outreach Specialist |
After working in the corporate world (Pepsico, Kraft General Foods, Unilever North America) for over 20 years, Eileen hung up her corporate hat and donned her chef coat--following her dream of starting her own personal chef business! Then Eileen joined the SFC Team in 2014 as her love for cooking and making people's taste buds come alive mixed together with her ability to manage and share making for a perfect combination! Eileen learned a lot about cooking from watching her grandmother and Mom but what really kicked up her passion for exploring new and exciting foods was living overseas in South East Asia (South Korea). Eileen currently lives on the beach at the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and loves to walk with her best buddy (13 year old yellow lab Riley 102 lbs of LOVE) and husband. She also enjoys all year round outdoor sports--beach, Golf, Kayaking, paddle boarding, hiking, skiing, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, snowman building..... lots of snow in the Upper Peninsula ❄
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Maggie Whittum, Social Media Maven |
Maggie Whittum began with Sticky Fingers Cooking as a Chef Instructor in 2010 and taught for several years between her extensive jaunts abroad. After surviving a massive brainstem stroke in 2014 at age 33, Maggie rejoined the Sticky Fingers Cooking Team in 2016 as the Social Media Maven. Maggie performs with Phamaly Theatre Company in Denver, which exclusively casts actors with disabilities, and she is creating a documentary about her life entitled The Great Now What. She is a graduate of Colorado College.
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Jacqui Gabel, Education Cultivator |
Jacqui grew up in Minneapolis and spent time in Florida, New York, Seoul, and South America before spontaneously moving to Denver where she's lived since 2016. Her passions for writing, travel, culture, food, and education have led her on a long, winding, and exciting path, and her favorite way to tie these passions together is by creating and cooking recipes from around the world....with kids.
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Kate Bezak, Admin Support Specialist |
Kate received her degree in Secondary Education for English and History from Grand Valley State University and a Masters in the Art of Teaching for Curriculum Design and Instruction with the drive to positively impact students’ lives. Since then, she has taught Language Arts at the middle school level and outdoor recreation for campers as young as 4 years old. Being a part of an organization that fosters kids’ passions and creativity has always been important to Kate, which is what drew her to Sticky Fingers Cooking. Kate loves to explore new recipes in the kitchen that feature bold flavors and is especially fond of baking and the Great British Baking Show! She’s always looking for people to share her recent bakes with. When Kate’s not in the kitchen, you can find her hitting the trails with her husband, Chris, and fur-baby, Apollo, or rock climbing at the local gym.
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MEET The SFC-CO TEAM
Kimberly Douglas, Colorado Area Manager & Development Cultivator |
Kimberly graduated from UCLA with a degree in International Development in 2010. While in college she came to realize how muli-faceted the culinary world really is and became fascinated with all things food. Working in the food industry for over a decade along with her many travels across Europe, Southeast Asia and Central and South America she moved to Denver in 2012 and was able to combine her passion for healthy cooking and working with kids via Sticky Finger Cooking. Kimberly started out as an instructor for SFC but has transitioned to managing all of our locations and partnerships in Colorado! Kim and her husband are world travelers, spending the better part of two years traveling together through four continents and recently completed a year long trip in an adventure van and bike touring across the NW! When they are living a “normal” life, Kim loves mountain biking, skiing, reading and spending time with friends and family, cat Nigel, dog Palta and son Miles!
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Chloe Sundberg, Colorado Scheduling Manager |
Chloe is a transplant to Colorado from the East Coast but now calls this beautiful state home. She is a self proclaimed foodie with a background in child development and has years of experience promoting kids’ health through healthy eating and physical activity. She has worked with kids in many different settings and really enjoys working with younger children. She is passionate about engaging kids in the kitchen and now that she has 2 little boys and is excited to share her love of cooking (and eating!)
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MEET The SFC-IL TEAM
Lucy Warenski, Chicago Area Manager & Development Cultivator
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Lucy, a Chicago native, was one of the first chefs for Sticky Fingers Cooking. While her background is in education, she is a certified Montessori teacher ages 3-6, her passion and zest for cooking was clear from the beginning. She loves to cook so much that she even started her own culinary business, Green Gourmet Cooking! While she loved living in Denver, and who wouldn’t, Lucy, her husband and two children are back in their hometown, Sweet Home Chicago! Lucy fell in love with Sticky Fingers Cooking: how it teaches children about food, expanding their palettes by chopping, stirring and tasting the DELICIOUS recipes on a weekly bases and doing it all while having a great time. She has been one of our most dedicated and enthusiastic chefs, so much so that she is helping us expand all the way in Chicago! Lucy’s is our lead Chef and contact in this wonderful and exciting expansion! Watch out Windy City, here comes Sticky Fingers Cooking and Lucy’s passion for teaching children about yummy food—your kids will LOVE it!
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Robin Pearce, Chicago Scheduling Manager |
Robin has worked in the restaurant industry for 30 years, both in operations and training. She loves to cook and believes that you are what you put in your body. Robin’s passion for teaching and making an impact on a child’s life through healthy cooking led her to Sticky Fingers Cooking.
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Amy Carter, Illinois Support Specialist |
Amy Carter grew up in southern Indiana and received a B.A. in Therapeutic Recreation & a minor in psychology from Indiana University. Amy came to Chicago, IL to start a job with St. Joseph's Child Center running the Activity Therapy department. She went on to become a Park Supervisor for the Chicago Park District running various sports programs and special events. After spending a few years at home with her two children, Amy’s love for new and exciting foods and teaching children, led her to join SFC in September of 2015!
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MEET The SFC-TX TEAM
Francine Huang, Texas Area Manager & Development Cultivator |
Francine has over 10 years working in the food industry. After earning her Bachelors in Nutrition and Dietetics, she spent countless hours working in kitchens tweaking and cooking nutritious recipes for collegiate athletes. Combining her food science expertise with her passion for nutritious and delicious food led her to Sticky Fingers Cooking in 2018. Francine continues to open the door for kids to experience and explore the world of food and especially loves cooking with kids because their expressions and comments are priceless. Her favorite thing is to see is how excited her students get when they taste something amazing that they NEVER thought they would like! When she’s not working, Francince loves reading books, hanging out with her 2 dogs, and hiking the trails in Austin.
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Jessi Cano, Texas Scheduling Manager |
Jessi was born and raised in Austin, TX. She is a Pediatric Dietitian and has spent her career helping families create healthy relationships with food and a love of healthy eating. She joined Sticky Fingers Cooking in 2017 and has been so excited to share with young chefs in and around Austin that food can be good for you AND taste really good too! Jessi and her husband have 3 young children, 2 dogs and a cat. When they're not cooking and exploring new foods of their own, they like to go camping, swimming and doing things together outdoors.
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Alli Doyle, Chef Instructor & Texas Support Specialist
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Chef Alli started cooking as a teen, volunteering during the summer at church camp. Then after traveling the world as a United States Marine, she decided she wanted to teach children to cook, because that's where the real action is at! She took her culinary degree and her experience with her 2 wild boys to Sticky Fingers Cooking! Things might get a little loud and a little crazy, but it will always be tasty!
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