Natural Food Retailers Association

Corinne Shindelar, CEO of the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association, has over 28 years of experience in the natural products industry. She has been a leader in organizing and developing partnerships that strengthen all stakeholders from manufacturer to consumer. Corinne spent 15 years in natural food retailing as a General Manager, merchandiser and project manager. She has been the Executive Director of two cooperative grocers associations, and founder of the Co-op Advantage Program. She has extensive experience on industry and cooperative boards of directors and served as first president of the National Co-op Grocers Association (NCGA). She is currently the CEO of INFRA, the national retail owned and governed association of leading independent retailers aligning their similarities to strengthen independents position in the natural and organic food industry.  Corinne serves on the board of NorthCountry Cooperative Federal Credit Union, BBC Inc, and the communications committee of the Non-GMO project.

Dot Peck, Director of Programs comes to INFRA with over 25 years in the natural product industry. She began her career at Tree of Life in its grassroots state as a store. Additional professional highlights include brokerage & retail solutions. Her experience in purchasing, promotions, sales, strategizing, analysis, coordination, management, event planning and technology create a full toolkit for her to manage programs in INFRA. She served on the Norcal NPA Board and recently joined her neighborhood board. Dot finds the close interaction with retailers, brokers, manufacturers & distributor personnel very enjoyable and enriching personally. She lives in St. Augustine Florida where she loves the beaches, surfing, boating, fishing, biking, beautiful sunrises golfing, reading and cooking with friends.

Lyndsay Griffith is the Shared Promotional Calendar (SPC) Program Coordinator for the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association, and works in the Minneapolis office. She has over seven years of experience in the natural products industry. Lyndsay has five years of experience in natural food retailing as Merchandising Manager for a natural foods cooperative where she facilitated the promotional programs, planned community events, and participated in the CAP Advisory Council. Prior to her work at the co-op, she worked for local, family-owned companies that were dedicated to environmentally friendly business practices. Lyndsay has been an organic foods consumer for over 13 years and enjoys going on long distance runs with her dog, Lilly, in her spare time.

Nikki Duffney, Member Services Manager, grew up in the Twin Cities and went to college at the University of Minnesota, Morris. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Management. Each summer, for the last three years, Nikki has worked at Minneapolis’s Best Seafood restaurant, quaintly located next to Minnehaha Falls. In the winters, she travels as much as possible for week vacations to extended stays. Nikki is passionate about working in the natural food industry. When not at work she enjoys riding her bike, photography, and spending time with her family.

Carrie Corson, Membership Coordinator, started her connection with natural foods as a child, snapping beans on the back porch of the isolated Idaho ranch where she grew up. “My mom would can 100 quarts of beans a season. We grew almost all of our vegetables and raised cattle, pigs, and chickens to feed our family.” She formally began her career in the natural product industry when she was hired as a cashier at the Moscow Food Coop in 1995. She was rapidly promoted to Wellness Manager/Buyer, a position she maintained until moving to the Central Oregon Coast in 2007. During her period of employment, the Co-op experienced incredible growth and moved twice to larger facilities. On two occasions during that time, circumstances required that Carrie assume the Grocery Manager/Buyer position, in addition to her wellness department duties, so her knowledge base is broad. “When I started at the Moscow Food Co-op we were grossing one million dollars a year with a staff of 25. When I left in 2007, we were grossing nearly six million a year and had more than tripled the size of our staff. During those eleven years I learned a lot about the industry, including product selection, inventory control, merchandising, marketing, and personnel management. Those experiences have given me a solid foundation in the natural product industry.” Carrie is glad to be part of the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association. “During my tenure at the Moscow Food Coop we made the decision to join the National Coop Grocers Association (NCGA), an organization parallel in the co-op world to INFRA, and I saw first-hand the advantages it brought to our store.”

Kate Fletcher, SPC Assistant, joined the INFRA team in October 2009. She started her career in the natural food industry over 27 years ago, working for a small independent natural food store/restaurant. Since then she has worked for a coop distributor, and for three brokerage companies holding various jobs, including customer service provider, retail sales representative, administrative assistant, vendor business manager, and retail account manager. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, David and two children, her daughter, Casey, and  son, Galen.