Dean Cycon to Present Talk about Social Change in the "Coffeelands"

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., November 10, 2014—Dean Cycon ’75, founder and CEO of Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Company, will present “Social Enterprise as a Vehicle for Meaningful Change in the Coffeelands” at Williams College on Thursday, Nov. 20. This event will take place in Griffin Hall, room 3 at 7:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Dean’s Beans is a certified 100 percent organic, fair trade, and kosher coffee operation located in Orange, Mass. Cycone founded the company in 1993 aiming to promote positive economic, social, and environmental change while earning a profit. Dean’s Beans develops sustainable projects while working in partnership with its coffee growers. The company has received numerous awards, including a Best Practices Recognition from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the 2004 Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

Cycon has nearly 40 years of experience doing development work in indigenous communities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. He is the founder of Coffee Kids, an international nonprofit dedicated to helping to improve the quality of life for coffee-farming families, and Cooperative Coffees, the world’s first fair trade roasters’ importing cooperative. He has been a Woods Hole Research Fellow, a Senior Fulbright Scholar, and a Yale Law School Visiting Fellow. In 2013, he was named the Oslo Business for Peace Honoree and received the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles Leadership Award for Community Engagement. Additionally, he is the author of Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, which was awarded the Gold Medal as Best Travel Essay book by the Independent Publishers Association.

In collaboration with Wild Oats Market, this event is sponsored by the Williams College Sustainable Food & Agriculture Program in the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives.

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For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

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