TheBridge profile: Liz Travis Allen

Name: Liz Travis Allen

Current city: Oakland, CA

Current job: Policy Director, COOK Alliance

Past job: Policy Director, Josephine

Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? Hawk and Pony

Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. Teaching! I taught middle school for 6 years before becoming a lawyer… and believe me, there isn’t much difference between the classroom and the state house. :) I spend most of my day explaining complicated and nuanced legal concepts with a lot of enthusiasm and patience. We are working to create a legal pathway for people to cook and sell meals out of their home kitchens. Because this is a new industry and new concept, it requires a lot of explaining. Similar to sixth graders, there is usually a path to collaboration and understanding - it just sometimes takes creativity!

Q. Job advice in three words? Trust Yourself

Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between innovation and regulation? The COOK Alliance is legalizing home cooking across the United States and stewarding the tech industry that is emerging to connect cooks with eaters. The Alliance wrote and passed two laws in California, making it the first state to allow home cooks to permit their home kitchens and sell meals to their neighbors. Our team of cooks, technologists, policy wonks, and labor organizers are working together to give cooks the economic opportunity, power and agency to pursue dignified work from their home kitchens.

Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? Design with the people you’re designing for at the table. Policy shouldn’t be made without the community at the table. Products shouldn’t be made without end users at the table.

Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? Be willing to take calculated risks and fail. States are the labs for the country, but counties and cities are the labs for states. We should be trying more interesting and aggressive policies on a small scale to rapidly prototype different policy ideas.

Q. Favorite book/podcast/long-form article you recommend? I love Ezra Klein’s long-form interviews - but couldn’t live without The Daily.

Q. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself in the beginning of your career? Be willing to admit what you don’t know. Ask questions. Ask for help. But also, trust your good ideas, just because someone has more experience than you, doesn’t mean that they have the only perspective that matters.

Q. Most underrated virtue in an employee? Marketing and presentation skills. I am terrible at visual design and layout and always respect folks who can take something and make it look professional.

Q. Favorite app? Sleep Cycle. Love my sleep!

Q. If you had to live in another city, which would it be? I’d live abroad somewhere! Maybe Buenos Aires, Singapore, Medellin?

Q. Best advice you’ve received? There is a difference between mentorship and sponsorship. People are frequently more willing to sponsor than mentor. Know the difference and curate your asks accordingly.

Q. Last time you were completely unplugged? Burning Man.

Q. How often do you work from home? Frequently. I’m either in coffee shops or my house. A few days a week, I’ll work in my PJs at my kitchen table - I swear it’s where I get my best work done.

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