About
La Rhea Pepper
Catalyst and Advocate
Co-Founder and former CEO of Textile Exchange
Creating market-driven solutions to transform the textile and apparel industry.
About La Rhea Pepper
For more than three decades, La Rhea Pepper has led the movement toward preferred, organic, and regenerative fibers. As a catalyst and coalition-builder, she advances standards, partnerships, and market adoption that turn sustainability goals into measurable outcomes. Her life’s work: transforming the apparel and textile industry so it restores soil, supports farmers, and benefits communities.
Roots in Responsible Farming
Rooted in her upbringing on a rainfed cotton farm in West Texas, La Rhea brings deep, firsthand insight into agricultural realities, and a conviction born in the dryland rows that every bale begins with a farmer’s hands. She champions fair representation and farmer-led leadership in the textile sector’s journey toward responsibility and sustainability.
A Pioneer: Leader in Sustainable and Regenerative Practices
La Rhea Pepper is a trailblazer in the global movement toward a sustainable, regenerative textile industry. For more than three decades, she has championed preferred, organic, and regenerative fibers—working to shift systems from extractive to restorative.
Her story begins on a rainfed cotton farm in West Texas, where the rhythms of the land shaped her worldview. That early connection to agriculture gave her deep respect for farmers and a clear conviction: meaningful transformation in fashion and textiles must start with the people who grow our fibers.
As the co-founder of Textile Exchange, La Rhea has served the organization for 21+ years—first as Chairman of the Board (2002), then Managing Director (2005), Chief Executive Officer (2020), and, beginning in 2024, Senior Advisor. Her leadership—together with Textile Exchange’s pioneering members—helped define preferred fiber and material strategies, strengthen integrity in the marketplace through the adoption of standards, and deepen engagement across the supply network. Prior to Textile Exchange, La Rhea and her late husband, Terry, co-founded the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative (TOCMC) in 1993—now the largest organic cotton cooperative in the United States—building a sustainable business model for farmers and strategic “value-added” partnerships, including Cotton Plus (organic fabric) and Organic Essentials (organic personal care products).
More recently, La Rhea served as Interim CEO of the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), stewarding a leadership transition and launching the Fiber & Materials Working Group to scale Regenerative Organic Certified® fibers and support the Journey to ROC™. She continues to serve as Board Chair of CottonConnect, advancing regenerative and organic cotton alongside soil health, climate resilience, and women’s empowerment. In 2024, she joined Fashion Makes Change as a Senior Advisor, supporting efforts to empower women in the textile supply chain and scale regenerative solutions in fashion.
Throughout her career, La Rhea has centered farmer voice, soil health, and systems that care for both people and planet—leadership that continues to inspire a more just, resilient, and regenerative future.
Commitment to Advocacy and Leadership
Since 1995, La Rhea Pepper has carried stewardship from field to forum, shaping how fiber moves with integrity from seed to seam. She began on the Administrative Council for Southern SARE (1995), was elected to the Organic Trade Association’s Fiber Council Steering Committee (1997) and joined the OTA Board of Directors (1998), where she helped anchor organic fiber processing standards and chain-of-custody for the industry. True to her commitment to U.S. family farms, she chaired RAFI, Rural Advancement Foundation International, from 2015 to 2018. She continues this service on the boards of CottonConnect (since 2016) and the Regenerative Organic Alliance (since 2018).
Educational Background
LaRhea holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Abilene Christian University and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Lubbock Christian University. Get More Information