Born and raised in New Jersey, Joanne Canady-Brown has truly made the garden state a sweeter place to call home! She graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in economics and began working on her MBA at her alma mater in 2010 before taking a leap of faith and leaving her studies to start her baking career journey and open The Gingered Peach, a nationally recognized bakery and New Jersey foodie destination. In 2018, she was one of twenty women nationally awarded a fellowship from the renowned James Beard Foundation for the Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership program.  In 2019, Joanne was named as one of the “Baker’s Dozen”, a list published by Baked from Scratch magazine recognizing the top trailblazers to watch in the baking industry today.  In 2023, Joanne not only jumped into ice cream making by opening Melba Ice Creamery, a handcrafted ice cream shop, but also took the dive into coffee roasting by acquiring ownership of Rojo’s roastery Princeton to steward it into it’s new future.  Joanne is a social activist, raising awareness regarding food insecurity, economic inequity and the need for job development programs in the culinary industry.  When she is not running her businesses, she can be found spending quality time with her husband Matt and two children Zoe and Greyson.