Category Archives: Food & Beverage

Kathryn Lott, Executive Director, Southern Smoke



On this episode of Mission Business, host Jennifer Alleva interviews Kathryn Lott, Executive Director of Southern Smoke, a Houston-based non-profit started by James Beard Award Winning Chef Chris Shepherd in 2015.  Southern Smoke has been pivoting way before we all started overusing the word pivot – first raising money for Multiple Sclerosis, then as a crisis relief organization after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, and now providing millions of dollars to out-of-work hospitality workers around the country due to COVID closures. Throughout the episode we hear from Kathryn about her journey with Southern Smoke, the challenges of scaling up quickly to meet a need, and how her nonprofit arts background informs her work with Southern Smoke. For more information on Southern Smoke, visit southernsmoke.org.