We are forming a Beloved Cafe’s Advisors Council in 2013. Contact us to find out more information!

Beloved Cafe Team:

Peter Olandt, Core Team Member

Pete graduated with an M. Div from Starr King School for the Ministry and is deeply interested in emergent ministry.  He has been planning Beloved Cafe in one form or another since 2006.  Pete has a very eclectic background.  He managed million dollar projects for Millennium Pharmaceuticals delivering $100 million of gene discoveries for their collaboration with Bayer.   Since that time he has earned his M. Div. and managed and trained large non-profit staffs at multiple day programs for adults with developmental disabilities.  He has also studied permaculture and alternative farming techniques in conjunction with different community building enterprises such as co-housing.

Rev. Dara Olandt, Core Team Member

Dara is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister of Jewish heritage. She appreciates the power of multi-religious community that is spiritually engaging, soul-stirring and meets the complexities of people’s identities and yearnings in the 21st century.  Dara has trained with PICO in congregational-community organizing and serves on the Steering Committee of the East Bay Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. She has also produced documentary radio for KPFA in Berkeley and WNYC Public Radio, New York.  While not working, Dara can be found attempting to learn musical instruments and leading theater for social transformation with Kairos Theater (offering Playback/Theater of the Oppressed workshops in schools and youth centers in the SF Bay Area). In April of 2013, Rev. Dara was called to serve as settled minister with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the New River Valley in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Emily Webb, Core Team Member

Emily is dedicated to creating a world where justice and joy are woven together. A native of Kentucky, she has lived on the West Coast for the last ten years. She is insightful, creative and has a passion for innovation and collaboration. In college, she was involved in involved in student organizing and starting an all student co-operative coffee shop. She makes a delicious cappuccino. Follow college, she worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team in patient services at Planned Parenthood, increasing their patient donations 200%. Here she developed a love of fundraising – aligning people’s actions with their values. Currently in her third year at Starr King School for the Ministry, Emily is grateful to serve as the intern minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego.

Marcus Liefert, Core Team Member

Marcus is a teller of stories and champion of make-believe, a serious advocate of fun and devotee of play, and a great lover of love. He is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, raised in the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. He will graduate from Starr King School for the Ministry in May 2012, and previously studied at Philosophy and Religion at Vassar College and Experimental and Activist Performance at New College of San Francisco. He has developed curriculum and overseen and implemented programming for several youth-focused organizations, including the Mosaic Project, a leader in peace and diversity education in the SF Bay Area. Over the last several years through his independent educational consulting practice, he has created enrichment courses at elementary schools and started a teen program at a Nonviolent Communication family camp. He currently serves as Intern Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley (UUCB). As Marcus and UUCB partner to explore the vision of “Congregations and Beyond,” he will serve a second year of internship with UUCB in 2012-2013 to focus on “Emergent Ministries” and support projects such as Beloved Café.

Chef Elizabeth Swett

Elizabeth has seventeen years of experience in the food service industry, and has trained under many award-winning chefs. She has managed a variety of kitchens, including fast food, fine dining, and catering. Her culinary experience is quite broad and ranges from Cajun to Classic French and California cuisines; she is also an accomplished sushi chef. She has led teams of employees and volunteers in preparing meals for up to 1000 people a day, for clientèle ranging from children to heads of state. Elizabeth has designed, built and managed catering kitchens in many diverse environments- from the Swedish countryside to the Black Rock Desert. She is currently the Executive Chef of Sacred Spaces Village. She also holds a Masters in Theological Studies from the Franciscan School of Theology at GTU.

Director of Business Development Francis Prévot

Above and beyond simple management, Francis enjoys using his imagination constructively, to create and develop projects and ideas. Leading and motivating people are also key components of his professional life.
Francis’ earliest professional training was as a military air traffic controller – an unusual start to a career in business, but taking an alternate route has come to define his personally as well as professionally. During the following phase, he worked as a sales representative both for small business marketing industry and high end products, then as a computer network and system administrator. He quickly rose to management positions, managed the micro-computing park at Airbus Industries, then moved to a large French bank where he was in charge of the department of Electronic Data Interchange, and finally became Sales Director for an IT company. Overall, he managed teams and budgets in addition to developing portfolios, increasing gross revenues and implementing numerous new ideas.  In 2003, he co-founded OpenSphere, a French based IT company specialized in information system security. In 2007, he co-founded with my wife, Wise and Wonderful Veterinary Housecalls, a mobile veterinary practice.

Photography has been a life long passion. His life and travels to poor countries showed him a different path. He attended Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley, CA as an M.Div. student where he met Emily and Marcus. He now shares his time between developing businesses and building a sustainable and fair world.