Who we are
Alentejo Alliance is a U.S.-based nonprofit working alongside the people, businesses, and traditions of the Alentejo region. Our work today is rooted in Alcácer do Sal, shaped by what the community has identified as its priorities — and what we learn together here, we hope can be useful to other Alentejo towns navigating similar questions.
By connecting local businesses, students, and international collaborators, we're building a stronger, more vibrant Alcácer do Sal — one that celebrates its roots while creating pathways for the future.
OUR MISSIONOUR PURPOSEAlcácer do Sal, like many towns across the Alentejo, faces real challenges: young people leaving for opportunity elsewhere, small businesses working without the resources of larger markets, and a cultural heritage that risks fading without active care. Alentejo Alliance exists to work alongside this community to meet these challenges together.
To strengthen local entrepreneurship, expand educational opportunity, and preserve the culture of the Alentejo — through partnerships that put the community in the lead
Our Values
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Community-informed direction — our priorities are shaped by what the community tells us they need; decisions stay accountable to the people funding and running the Alliance.
Partnership over intervention — every individual initiative is designed and built alongside the people it serves, not delivered to them ready-made.
Cultural respect — Alentejo's traditions are the foundation, not a backdrop.
Long-term sustainability — we build what the region can sustain after we've stepped back.
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The Cooperativa Empresarial
OUR FOCUSThe Cooperativa Empresarial began as a small group of businesses filling a gap — Alcácer do Sal has never had a dedicated business association. This fall, it becomes one: a membership-based network with tiers for businesses, students, and community supporters, offering mentorship, shared resources, and a collective voice for local entrepreneurs.
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Academic Partnerships
Through Alcácer FutureLab, launching this fall in partnership with the local secondary school and Startup Leiria, students spend 10–12 weeks identifying a real challenge facing the region — in tourism, sustainability, digital skills, or local commerce — and pitch a solution publicly. Alongside FutureLab, we're strengthening the school's existing internship program, connecting students directly with Cooperativa member businesses.
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Comunity & Culture
Alcácer do Sal carries thousands of years of history — Phoenician, Roman, Moorish, and medieval layers that most visitors, and many residents, have never fully encountered. This fall, we're convening local archaeologists, historians, and community members to map the region's heritage and identify how it can become a source of pride, education, and sustainable tourism — shaped by the community whose story it is.
Meet Our Team
Alentejo Alliance was created with community in mind. The goal has always been to support the community and create connections and opportunities that allow for growth, creativity and connection. Meet the minds that brought the ideas to life.
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Cathy is the owner of Jennings House Eatery in San Diego, California, and the former Executive Director of the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University. With a rich background in leadership, management, entrepreneurship, and international business and communications, Cathy brings decades of experience to her work in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
For the past 14 years, Cathy has led business and cultural trips to Portugal, working with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and university students on international business and social impact projects. Her work bridges cultures and industries, fostering collaboration between U.S. and Portuguese organizations. She has also partnered with Portuguese universities and secondary schools to deliver conferences and seminars designed to inspire and equip professionals and students alike.
Cathy loves to travel and enjoys coastal living. In her free time, she enjoys reading, walking, and spending time with her family. She lives in San Diego and is the proud mother of two grown children and grandmother to three grandsons.
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Raised in Seattle, Washington, Riley has called California home for the past seven years. She holds a degree in Civic Communications and Media with a minor in Sociology from Willamette University, and brings a diverse background of communication, leadership, hands-on work, and community involvement to Alentejo Alliance.
Riley is passionate about people and the ways that individuals, businesses, and communities can come together to create something greater than what any one person could build alone. She believes strongly in the power of community to bridge gaps, support local businesses, create opportunities for young people, and build a stronger future for generations to come.
Riley has been involved with Alentejo Alliance since 2025. As Director of Operations, she leads the organization’s student engagement initiatives, supports grant research and procurement, and helps develop member engagement and community partnerships.
With a strong belief in collaboration, perseverance, and getting things done, her professional experience has taken her from communications and service work to construction and hands-on restoration projects, including restoring an old fishing trawler and currently renovating her own home. She works as a Head Brewer at a local kombucha company in Santa Cruz, California, where she combines creativity, problem-solving, and practical skills in her day-to-day work.
Outside of work, Riley enjoys sailing, scuba diving, traveling, and exploring new places and cultures. More than anything, she loves meeting new people, learning from their experiences, and working alongside others to create meaningful opportunities and lasting connections within the community.
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James and Sofia are the founders of Studio V&H, a creative marketing and branding agency based in Alcácer do Sal. British and Portuguese respectively, they bring a rare combination of international perspective and genuine local rootedness to everything they do — the kind of combination that makes natural ambassadors for a region quietly becoming one of Portugal's most compelling destinations.
Their paths here weren't identical, but they rhyme. Sofia trained in architecture before moving through sales and marketing to found Vago Designs, a strategy-led branding studio for beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands. James trained as a chef, where precision and creativity went hand in hand, before building Honed Films into a name known for cinematic, story-driven video. When they relocated together from London to Portugal, the two studios followed — and it didn't take long working alongside each other to see that their combined skills produced stronger results than either could alone. Studio V&H was the natural result: strategy, design, and video under one roof.
Having made Alcácer do Sal home for over three years now, James and Sofia are not observers of the town's story — they're participants in it, with relationships across local businesses, cultural institutions, and the residents who give Alcácer its character. That's what makes them the right people to represent Alentejo Alliance and the Cooperativa Empresarial on the ground: a bilingual point of contact whose introduction carries the weight of a personal recommendation, because it's one they'd make anyway.
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The Alentejo Alliance Advisory Board exists to ensure that the Alliance’s work in Alcácer do Sal is consistently informed by the people who live, work, and are raising the next generation in this community. The Board provides local knowledge, professional expertise, and community perspective across the Alliance’s three areas of focus, Business, Education, and Community & Culture, to help guide the Alliance’s priorities and strengthen the relevance and impact of its initiatives.
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The Alentejo Alliance Advisory Board exists to ensure that the Alliance’s work in Alcácer do Sal is consistently informed by the people who live, work, and are raising the next generation in this community. The Board provides local knowledge, professional expertise, and community perspective across the Alliance’s three areas of focus, Business, Education, and Community & Culture, to help guide the Alliance’s priorities and strengthen the relevance and impact of its initiatives.
WHERE WE'RE GOING+ Grow the Cooperativa Empresarial from 15 founding members toward 25–30 active members.
+ Launch Alcácer FutureLab — a 10–12 week entrepreneurship program with the secondary school.
+ Host the inaugural Encontro Empresarial, the association's public launch event.
+ Convene a heritage working group to identify the first cultural preservation pilot.