STACEY NELSON

It all started...

In 2011. Stacey left her professional softball career for law school, and to take a much needed trip to Uganda before then. She'd been interested in whether the lack of economic opportunities in rural communities in Northern Uganda affected the youth's opportunity for employment, especially those who'd been prevented from attending school due to the war. That year she spent four months studying Microfinance and Entrepreneurship to understand why the youth weren't being employed, despite their skills.  

The commute from Uganda to Los Angeles afforded her time to brainstorm. The glaring need for job creation, an under-utilized workforce, and wagon-fulls of imported bread...

They needed a bread factory.

That was five years ago, Stacey is now the Project Director of Bake for Peace, a non-profit designed to build a bread factory from the ground up, employ Friend of Orphans Alumni, and lift Pader's economy. 

You might recognize Stacey, she's also an All-American softball pitcher and a licensed California attorney. If she's not in a blazer, she'll be the one in blue and orange.  A not-so-subtle nod to her alma mater, University of Florida, where she earned her undergrad. 

Today she is on the ground in Uganda, facilitating Bake for Peace's initiatives and working directly with the community to make things happen.