Meet
Our Board Members
Chuck Crews
Chuck Crews is the founder and board president of Love Coffee. He also founded and serves on the board for Tigers on the Prowl. He has recently retired from owning and operating small businesses. He has two sons and four grandkids that light up his life. During his years coaching Special Olympics he became aware of the difficulty some of the athletes had in finding employment. His hope is that Love Coffee will provide opportunities to those that we sometimes leave behind.
Pat McMurry
Pat McMurry has been married to Monica for 36 years and is father of 6 grown children. Pat has operated MPH LLC Commercial Interior Contracting since the late 70’s. He has worked encouraging relationships between pastors and churches since the late 90’s and coordinated city-wide church events including March for Jesus in the 90’s, Pastor’s prayer gatherings in the ‘00s, and Love INC in the ‘10s. He co-founded Love INC of Columbia with Jane Williams in 2008, served as board chair until 2016, Executive Director until 2020
Renee Carter
Renee has been with Boone County Family Resources for 28 years and was part of the founding team of Love Coffee back in 2018. Renee is our Vice President and Program Consultant Committee Chair. Renee is the Life and Work Connections Program Manager at BCFR for their community integration, employee development and employment services programs. She serves as the facilitator for the Columbia Employment Consortium and participates in the S.T.E.P. Management Team.
Tami Benus
Tami serves as Love Coffee's Treasurer and was part of the founding board. Tami joined Love Coffee because she wants to help folks who face employment challenges. Her brother has MS and has dealt with challenges his whole life. As a CPA, she owned a large CPA firm for many years; sold it and now owns a new company helping nonprofits and their client base.
Trent Rash
Trent Rash serves as Board Secretary. He happily assumed the position of Executive Director of The Missouri Symphony in August 2019. In this position, he oversees the staff and the day to day operations of the organization, which has been a mainstay of the Columbia community for fifty years. In addition to his duties at MOSY, he loves finding ways to get involved in the community. Love Coffee was a natural fit as Trent has a beautiful cousin with severe down syndrome and autism and believes all humans should have a chance to contribute to this world. In what spare time he has, Trent enjoys spending time with his three children, collecting bow ties and fun socks, and is an avid reader and runner.
Luana Fields
Luana Fields is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is a former volleyball player for Columbia College and is married to a local former basketball player, Mikel Fields. They have a daughter, Olivia Fields. Mikel and Luana own and operate Cracked Up Mobile a local cellphone repair shop. Luana currently works at Hawthorn Bank as a Commercial Loan Officer and is involved with the Special Olympics as a volleyball coach. She serves in the Love Coffee board because she is passionate about helping others and is a strong believer in the “leaving things better than you found them” motto. She is also a local artist at North Village Arts District and in her free time she loves to create original oil paintings and display them at the couple’s local Downtown COMO studio located in the North Village Arts District.