Cat Jaffee: For the Love of Honey

Cat Jaffe is a nomadic social entrepreneur and shares with us why we should care about honey.

Raised on a farm in the Colorado Rockies, Cat grew up loving animals, dirt, and altitude.

Her dedication and passion for crawly creatures, agriculture, and women leaders has launched her across the world, from working with women farmers on an organic farm in Ecuador at age 15, to receiving a Luce scholarship to train rural leaders at the Asian Rural Institute in Japan.

Cat graduated from Wellesley College in 2008 focusing on the politics of agriculture and migration with a dual B.A. in Political Science and Religion. Following graduation, Cat was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study with Bogazici University on rural women's migration experiences and how it effects women's employment opportunities and voting behavior in Istanbul.
While conducting her research, Cat fell in love with Northeastern Turkey, its 9,000 species of flowers, its incredible people, its rolling yaylalar full of beehives, and its overwhelmingly delicious honey.
Upon completing her research, Cat returned to the United States and began working for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public as the regional liaison for the Arab World and the Global Director of the Awards Program.

However after working with social innovators during Egypt's Arab Spring, in 2011, Cat was inspired to return to Turkey to follow her passion and start BALYOLU, a social business that trains and works with women beekeepers to sustain, grow, and launch small scale rural enterprises.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Cat
• Jaffee;
• Honey;
• BALYOLU;
• TurkishWIN;
• entrepreneur