Brew a Better World

Until he arrived in the Bay Area in 2016, Ali Fayazi had never heard the word barista.

These days, the former refugee from Iran makes killer macchiatos and manages a shop for 1951 Coffee Company.

“Before this, I was an immigrant living day-to-day, and you cannot think about a future when you’re living like that,” says Fayazi, who learned the art of coffee at 1951 Coffee Company’s Oakland training center.

Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship’s accelerator program boosted the company with training and mentorship, as it does for other enterprises which support refugees, migrants, and human tracking survivors.

As part of the accelerator, 1951 Coffee founders Rachel Taber and Doug Hewitt trained with Miller Center mentor Louis Jordan, a former vice president at Starbucks.