The U.S. National Coffee Association (NCA) announced the recipients of its 2026 individual awards and its 2026 “Origin Charity of the Year” Award, with presentations planned during the trade group’s annual convention in Tampa, Florida, March 12-14.
The 2026 individual honorees include the late Pedro Lázaro Gaviña of Gaviña Coffee Company (Distinguished Leadership Award), Nora Johnson of Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA (Rising Star Award) and Thomas J. Hartley of Hartley Transportation (Volunteer of the Year Award).
Strategies for International Development (SID) has been named Origin Charity of the Year, with Grounds for Health named as a finalist.
“Each of the honorees has gone above and beyond to leave an indelible mark on the sector,” NCA President and CEO William “Bill” Murray said in the announcement.
The Late Pedro Lázaro Gaviña
The NCA Distinguished Leadership Award will be presented posthumously to Pedro Lázaro Gaviña, a third-generation roaster and co-founder of F. Gaviña & Sons, Inc., now known as Gaviña Coffee Company.
Gaviña was born in Cuba into a coffee family with a legacy spanning more than 150 years, and he helped build the family’s Los Angeles roasting business into one of the nation’s largest minority-owned coffee roasters.
Gaviña and his brother Francisco Marcos “Paco” Gaviña died within six weeks of one another last year at ages 80 and 81.
Nora Johnson
The new NCA Rising Star Award will go to Nora Johnson, senior director of commodities for Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA. Johnson leads green coffee procurement, risk management, inbound logistics and green coffee quality for the company, which includes retail brands such as Chock full o’Nuts, Kauai Coffee, Hills Bros and Segafredo Zanetti.
Johnson joined the NCA’s Next Gen community in 2020 and has since served as committee chair, vice chair and chair of the Next Gen Council.
Thomas J. Hartley
The NCA Volunteer of the Year Award will go to Thomas J. Hartley, president of Hartley Transportation, the company he founded in 1992.
The association credited Hartley with helping identify supply-chain vulnerabilities and practical steps to prevent green coffee theft, including contributions to an NCA guide on the subject.
Strategies for International Development
The NCA Origin Charity of the Year Award will go to Strategies for International Development (SID), a nonprofit involved in organizing technical assistance for coffee-farming families with the goal of alleviating poverty. The organization currently leads coffee-focused initiatives in Uganda, Tanzania and Guatemala.
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