KDC Team 
About KDC
Our Team
Board of Directors
Client Highlights
Client List
Partners

We have a small, experienced staff with over 50 combined years of experience, ranging from grassroots organizing to running cooperatives to non-profit administration to Fortune 500 consulting.

​KDC also has a unique team of professional consultants, all with many years of cooperative business experience. Our highly skilled experts are available to assist clients with all aspects of business development. We have centers of excellence in business planning, financial forecasting, and legal advising
​

Ron Gaydos
​Ron Gaydos, Cooperative Development Consultant, has extensive experience in economic development, organizational strategy, and special projects management as well as cooperatives. In 2015 Ron co-founded the Pittsburgh Chamber of Cooperatives, the Pittsburgh region’s hands-on resource for cooperative business.

Ron was introduced to cooperative economics through the EF Schumacher Society, now the national New Economy Coalition, in study sponsored by several Pittsburgh community leaders. He has recently trained in consent-based governance and with other Chamber members also conducts consent-based decision making and training sessions  among cooperatives and workgroups interested in non-hierarchical collaboration.

Ron is a longtime advocate for equity, inclusion, and fairness in community economic development. His work on major community development projects is known for these emphases. He has started three businesses and has served as a consultant for many other business owners.

For three years he was a member of a cooperative household that harmoniously (mostly) managed everyday living, upkeep and renovations, and household social events. When it came time for his son to go to elementary school, Ron and his wife got together with 4 other families in an informal after-school co-op, having five more children at home one day a week for after school snacks, homework time, and activities among all five families. Ron also founded and operated a labor exchange and business referral network of community-based business owners known as The Rainbow Trust Collective.​
​
After graduate study at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, Ron began to work on several high-profile projects involving former industrial sites and their conversion, workforce development, and technology-assisted community discourse. This project management experience organizing complex initiatives, coupled with his fervor for business practices and economic policies that create shared value, has led him to strive be one of the leading proponents of cooperatives in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Hanna Mengel
Hanna Mengel, KDC's Operations and Program Coordinator, is a graduate from Lock Haven University where she studied Health Sciences and Psychology. She worked with KDC over the past few summers and became a full-time employee in January 2020. Hanna supports all aspects of KDC projects including the Home Care and New Jersey Livestock feasibility studies by conducting research, reporting results, and assisting with grants and contracts. She supports day to day operations such as maintaining our client and financial records, handling communications, responding to client requests and maintaining the KDC website and social media platforms. She enjoys learning about cooperative development and working with the KDC team. 

Hanna is passionate about wellness and enjoys exploring various techniques and practices that promote wellbeing. In her free time, she enjoys attending different fitness classes, attempting new recipes, and spending time with loved ones. Her future plans are to go to graduate school for Health Psychology. 

Autumn Vogel 
​Autumn is a native of Pittsburgh and has lived in Meadville, PA since graduating from Allegheny College in 2015. She is an active community organizer with a background in community and business development. Autumn got her start in the wonderful world of cooperatives with the establishment of the Northwest Pennsylvania Investment Cooperative, a grassroots real estate cooperative that endeavors to provide affordable, quality commercial space to entrepreneurs in the Meadville, PA area and beyond. Autumn is committed to small "d" democracy and to building community wealth in her town of Meadville, PA and beyond. She sits on Meadville City Council.

Jen Christopher
Jen Christopher is KDC's IT consultant. She has seven years of experience in the IT industry, with a background in systems integration, software deployment, and technology based business solutions. She has worked with several Pennsylvania based cooperative businesses, including Weavers Way, CreekSide, Swarthmore and Mariposa. Her specialties include point of sale systems, web design, data reporting and analysis, employee training, technical documentation, and inventory management. 

Prior to working with KDC, Jen was Director of IT at CreekSide Food Co-op. During that time she also provided point of sale system and general IT support to Swarthmore Co-op. She briefly worked for an IT company in New Orleans before becoming a full time independent consultant
KDC continues to be governed by a volunteer board of directors mostly comprised of professionals in rural development, economic-community development, and education.  They are a hands-on board and regularly assist in KDC projects.