Kaitlynn Perez-Mockett

Kaitlynn Perez-Mockett is a Georgia girl who grew up in the I-20 East suburbs. Her work experience spans various roles and industries, namely education and food service; however, her heart lies in connecting people and communities, process optimization and system creation. She’s a type-A girlie, if y’know what we mean. (And a 2w1).

As is the tale for most of us that find ourselves enamored with, tied to, magnetized by this industry, what Kaitlynn anticipated would be a short-term serving gig to alleviate grad school expenses turned into her next career move. After relocating to Atlanta, Kaitlynn leaned on her limited hospitality experience and joined the Castellucci Hospitality Group and Redbird as a bartender.

Over the last five years, Kaitlynn has helped establish and grow nonprofit programming that assists food service workers, namely in the program development, referral and partnership space. She joined Southern Smoke Foundation as their Assistant Director of Program Operations, utilizing her process optimization and efficiency identifying skillset to lift SSF’s already incredible team and programming to the next level – with scalability and growth as the end-goal destinations.

Kaitlynn is a member and an advocate of the LGBTQIA+ community, supports animal welfare through volunteering, and is a proud Secondhand Queen – sustainable shopping has been a long-term practice for most of her adult life. In her community, she works to enhance and amplify the voices of others who are historically oppressed or marginalized. Her ideal weekends are spent snuggling up with her wife and sweet fur baby fam (Luna, Scarlet, and Bustelo) for a great episode of the latest true crime documentary or a re-run of Tangled or The Princess Diaries or binging another Stardew Valley save file.