Napa Rise
SPEAKERS
Keep checking back for updates to our exciting list of speakers, mentors and moderators for 2025.
In the world of journalism, Mark Arax stands out as a rarity. On one hand, he is a skilled investigative reporter who unearths secrets from the depths of shadow governments. On the other hand, he is a gifted writer whose feature stories and books are distinguished by the “poetry of his prose.”
Mark digs deep in the dirt of the Golden State, finding tragedies hidden from most Californians. With equal passion, he chronicles the plight of both farm workers and farmers. His stories on the land are told from the close up of a native whose own family narrative is found in the same soil. His grandfather Aram’s first job in America was picking the fruits and vegetables of the San Joaquin Valley; his father, Ara, was born on a raisin farm outside Fresno.
“It is Arax’s personal connection to the land,” the review noted, “that pushes his collection past mere reportage to a high literary enterprise that beautifully integrates the private and idiosyncratic with the sweep of great historical forces.”
Mark’s newest book, The Dreamt Land, is being hailed by critics as one of the most important books ever written about the West.
“The Dreamt Land is the book Mark Arax was born to write. Nuanced, deeply researched, and profoundly personal, it offers, through its history of agriculture in California, a deep dive into the soul of the state,” said critic David L. Ulin. “Arax knows the territory; he has written about rural California for many years. This is his crowning achievement, a work of reportage that is also a work of literature. It belongs on the short list of great books about the state.”
A top graduate of Fresno State and Columbia University, Mark left the Los Angeles Times in 2007 after a public fight over censorship of his story on the Armenian Genocide. He has taught literary non fiction at Claremont McKenna College and Fresno State University. The father of three children, who lives on a suburban farm in Fresno.
Gustavo Aviña, viticulture director at Pine Ridge Vineyards, grew up helping his father farm tomatoes in Mexico. When he and his wife came to the United States in 1988, Gustavo began working with some of the finest vineyard management programs in Napa Valley.
Since 2003, Gustavo has worked intimately with every Pine Ridge Vineyards estate property. He and his team understand the soils and climates of the winery’s vineyards in five different appellations: Stags Leap District, Howell Mountain, Oakville, Rutherford, and Carneros.
Anna Brittain is the Executive Director of Napa Green. Anna has worked locally, nationally and internationally on environmental management and policy with organizations ranging from the environmental economics think tank Resources for the Future in Washington, DC to the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Hanoi, Vietnam. She has spent a decade facilitating and growing sustainability in the wine industry, with an expertise in communications and certification standards. Anna has served as a lead sustainability consultant with Ontario Craft Wineries, Sustainable Winegrowing British Columbia, Crimson Wine Group, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, and individual wineries including Benziger Family Winery and Seghesio Family Vineyards. She has helped lead the growth of the Napa Green program for over six years, and stepped into the position of Executive Director of the now independent non-profit in fall 2019. Anna has a Master’s of Environmental Science & Management from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara and a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies from Williams College.
Philippe Coderey comes from a very long line of vine growers and farmers in southern France and Switzerland. His last name finds its roots in the old French verb ‘codurer’ – which meant to cultivate vineyards. His ancestors were named after their vocation during the 11th century. He grew up on the family vineyard in Provence, France and was fortunate to be exposed to traditional viticulture techniques through elders of the family.
He worked with his father from a young age and by the time he turned 15, he was familiar with all traditional vineyard operations from plantation to pruning and through harvest. He attended a viticulture/oenology boarding school in Provence from 1977 to 1981. He finished his oenology education at the University of Burgundy in Dijon.
At Agrology, Charlie leads regenerative partnerships and business development. With real-time, continuous soil respiration and carbon flux monitoring, Agrology allows the soil to speak, facilitating a more robust dialogue between farmers and their soil microbiomes. This empowers farmers to tie their practices to real-world soil health outcomes, and optimize their regenerative programs within their unique context. When not thinking about plants or soil life, you are likely to find Charlie surfing, kayaking, or hiking in the mountains around his home in Santa Cruz, CA.
Will Drayton is the Director of Technical Viticulture, Sustainability and Research at Treasury Wine Estates
(TWE), one of the world’s largest wine companies. Will has been with TWE since 2008, beginning in
viticulture at Etude Winery and has held many positions within the viticulture and winemaking groups.
In his current role, Will guides TWE’s US sustainability efforts in addition to technical and scientific aspects of winegrowing in California. He serves on the committee that guides the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, Chair of the PD-GWSS board for the CDFA and board member of the Los Carneros Water District.
Will holds a Master’s degree from UC Davis in Horticulture and Agronomy and undergraduate degree in
Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge. Will resides with his young family in Sebastopol, CA.
Jay Famiglietti is a Global Futures Professor in the School of Sustainability, in the College of Global Futures at Arizona State University. He is Professor Emeritus from the University of Saskatchewan, where he was Executive Director of the Global Institute for Water Security, and where he held the Canada 150 Research Chair in Hydrology and Remote Sensing. He is currently advising the Silicon Valley tech startup, Waterplan, after serving as its founding Chief Scientist. Before moving to the University of Saskatchewan, he was Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology; he was a professor in Earth System Science and in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine; and he was a professor in Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.
Famiglietti and his research team use satellites to track changing water availability, and they pioneered the methods to detect groundwater depletion from space using the NASA GRACE mission. They have been working for many years towards improving hydrological prediction in climate models like those used in the IPCC. This work has driven Famiglietti’s interest in corporate water sustainability and stewardship, innovations in financial tools and data-driven reporting platforms, and international water diplomacy.
He is a former Chair of the Board of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), a former Editor-in-Chief of Geophysical Research Letters, and he has been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and UCLA. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and of the Geological Society of America, a recipient of AGU’s Hydrological Sciences Award, and a Distinguished Alumni of Tufts University.
Prof. Famiglietti is committed to science communication. He is regular advisor to state, provincial, U. S., Canadian and world leaders on regional and global water issues, he appears as a featured expert in television and film, and he hosts the podcast “What About Water?” He and his research group have published numerous papers and reports, and their work has been featured in major international news media.
Elisabeth Forrestel studies the phylogenetic and functional basis of drought and heat responses in grapes, and ways to mitigate climate change impacts in viticulture. Her work includes incorporating monitoring technology in vineyards and using remote sensing data to help paint a fuller picture of the environmental factors that most significantly affect plant growth, berry chemistry and, ultimately, wine quality.
Chris works directly with MCE’s service area key commercial customers and business partners. Chris helps energy customers evaluate and adopt the MCE commercial programs and services that will help them ensure that they achieve their energy, financial, and sustainability objectives for their organizations and stakeholders.
Chris brings 15 years of customer engagement experience in demand side clean energy technologies and services to MCE. Prior to joining the Public Affairs team at MCE in May 2015, Chris worked in the renewable energy programs group at Constellation Energy and was an early member of the California team at EnerNOC (acquired by Enel) starting in 2007. At these companies, she helped some of California’s largest energy customers make decisions about demand response, energy efficiency, energy storage, and other demand side services. Prior to that, Chris worked in the technology industry in strategic alliances and international business development in both California and in Europe.
Chris earned her M.I.A in International Banking and Finance at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and her B.A. in Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. A resident of Marin County and a Deep Green customer herself, Chris loves to spend free time enjoying activities with her family and friends as well as on the hiking trails and biking routes around Mount Tam, and travelling.
Dr. Lundgren is an agroecologist, Director ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004, and was a top scientist with USDA-ARS for 11 years.
Lundgren’s research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for regenerative food systems.
Lundgren received the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering by the White House. Lundgren has served as an advisor for national grant panels and regulatory agencies on pesticide and GM crop risk assessments. Lundgren has written 107 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored the book “Relationships of Natural Enemies and Non-prey Foods”, and has received more than $3.4 million in grants. He has trained 5 post-docs and 12 graduate students from around the world. One of his priorities is to make science applicable to end-users, and he regularly interacts with the public and farmers regarding pest and farm management and insect biology.
Lundgren’s research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for sustainable food systems. His ecological research focuses heavily on conserving healthy biological communities within agroecosystems by reducing disturbance and increasing biodiversity within cropland.
For the past 15 years, Ben has been designing and implementing regenerative farming systems in a variety of ecosystems. A New Englander by birth, Ben fell in love with agriculture in the verdant fields of northern California in high school. Ever since, Ben has been managing farms, improving soils, and educating the next crop of environmental stewards with a holistic view of farming with natural systems. No stranger to Napa, he previously lived on Mt Veeder, where he fell in love with the oak and madrone woodlands and made friends with the local ravens. When Ben is not helping Napa’s vineyards adopt 21st century practices, he is spending time with his impressive wife and two wild children in the woods and on the water. Ben currently occupies Nisenan Territory and is a proud alumnus of Sterling College in Northeast Vermont, where he received a BA in Sustainable Agriculture.
Dr. Nicholaus Madden is a soil scientist who started working part-time for Vineyard Soil Technologies in 2013 and joined full-time in October 2017. Nicholaus has a Bachelor of Science degree in Hydrology, a M.S. in International Development, with an emphasis in Agronomy, and a Ph.D. in Biogeochemistry. Nicholaus was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer from 1997 to 1999, and served as an Agricultural Extensionist in Honduras focusing on soil conservation. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010, Nicholaus worked for seven years managing USAID (United States Agency for International Development) agriculture projects in the Middle East and Central Asia for UC Davis. Before joining Vineyard Soil Technologies, Nicholaus was Chief-of-Party for a USAID project in Afghanistan focused on rebuilding the Afghan agriculture extension system.
Joy leads MCE’s strategy and implementation efforts for multiple transportation electrification programs. She focuses on MCE’s EV charging program and designing equitable transportation electrification options across MCE’s service area. Joy brings over 10 years of experience in clean mobility project development and management, data analysis, partnership creation with diverse stakeholders, and facilitation of strategic decision-making processes that center people first. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Outside the office: A Bay Area native, Joy enjoys grocery shopping (yes!) and exploring the region’s hidden back roads.
Sierra was first captivated by the natural world with help from her grandfather who has grown the most spectacular garden she’s ever known. This inspiration developed into a career path in the field of natural resource management beginning in 2013 when Sierra first joined the City of Napa’s Recycling Division where she helped usher in city-wide composting residentially and in our schools. She worked this job while studying for her B.S. in Conservation & Resource Studies from UC Berkeley where she had the opportunity to take a course on Agroecology that shifted her direction into agriculture. She started with an 85-hour permaculture design course in Oakland that inspired a career shift into viticulture. After a diverse array of experiences, Sierra found a greater calling to return to the Napa Valley to work alongside leaders for climate resiliency. When she is not working with growers to help them achieve their climate action goals, Sierra devotes her time toward training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and petting every cat she encounters.
Esther Mobley is the wine critic at the San Francisco Chronicle. Prior to joining the Chronicle in 2015, she was an assistant editor at Wine Spectator magazine in New York, and has worked harvests at wineries in Napa Valley and Argentina. She was the 2019 Feature Writer of the Year in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards.
Find her work at: http://sfchronicle.com/wine
Director of Viticulture and Winemaking, the French connection runs strong through Mostero, who studied in Bordeaux and trained at Château Haut-Brion, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix. He worked with Baron Philippe de Rothschild in the Languedoc and at Almaviva in Chile before returning to his native California to join Dominus Estate in 2007.
“Christian Moueix has been my guide throughout my career and has been my greatest example of a perfect winemaker. He is clear, precise and is profoundly attached to the vineyard. He has guided me from the beginning.”
Morgan’s early exposure to wine and winemaking was thanks to his father Joel Peterson, who had started a small passion project called Ravenswood Winery— a job for which he was steadily not making money while working out of a small building along the big curve on Broadway. Though always enamored with the wine industry, Morgan bypassed a traditional Viticulture and Enology degree and studied History and Political Science at Vassar College. After undergrad, he enrolled at Columbia University with an eye towards a Masters in American Studies. meanwhile working at a small shop in the Upper East Side called Pet Wines. There, he met Chris Cottrell, with whom he became fast friends.
Maggie Purdie was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Growing up in a wine-loving family, she decided to pursue winemaking at an early age. As an industry at the intersection of plant sciences, nature, gastronomy, culture, language, and travel, Maggie knew there was always more to learn. After completing her degree in Oenology and Viticulture at the University of Adelaide, Australia, Maggie began her globe-trotting career by following the harvest and worked at Primo Estate (Australia), Colgin (Napa), Matetic (Chile), Fantesca (Napa), Don Martino (Argentina), Hamel Family (Sonoma) and Newton (Napa), to name a few.
In her spare time, Maggie enjoys backpacking, scuba diving and trekking. Maggie lives in Napa with her husband and large Siberian cat.
In 2019, Christopher and Jannea founded The Two Eighty Project to increase equity and diversity within the wine industry — and access to the spaces occupied by it. They began their work at Alemany Farms, a public park in San Francisco, originally dedicated to giving inner-city individuals the space to practice urban community gardening. As the nature of the space, industry, and city have grown increasingly exclusive, it’s become increasingly urgent to reclaim and revitalize them for the local community.
The Two Eighty Project is dedicated to building a sustainable food and wine community that nourishes every member of the local economy and ecosystem.
A first-generation American, Martin has led a multifarious career across many sectors of the wine industry: importer, director, educator, international judge, winemaker, and speaker. Highlights include: becoming the first Master of Wine of Mexican descent, being named one of Wine Enthusiast’s Top Forty under Forty, twice producing one of Wine & Spirits Magazine’s “US Best Cabernets”, twice being named one of Wine Business Monthly’s Industry Leaders, co-hosting The FourTop, a James Beard-awarded podcast, winning a JancisRobinson.com writing competition on sustainability, and co-founding two significant non-profit initiatives focused on social equity (Wine Unify) and climate action (Napa RISE). Today, while continuing to volunteer his time in sustainability and equity projects, Martin is a partner at WineWise LLC, a well-respected importer of European wines in California.
Andrea Robinson is a world-renowned Master Sommelier who takes the seemingly daunting subject of wine and food, and brings it down to earth for all to understand and enjoy. Robinson, one of only 26 female Master Sommeliers in the world, couples this distinction with a strong culinary pedigree as a graduate and former Dean of the French Culinary Institute, and the winner of three James Beard Awards. In addition, she has been widely featured across leading national television networks and publications as the “go-to” expert for all things wine. She and her husband John live in Napa Valley.
Born and raised in Victoria, Australia, Molly Burroughs has been surrounded by wine for most of her life. She attended Curtin University in Western Australia, completing a degree in Agribusiness, Viticulture, and Enology. After working in wineries in Victoria, Margaret River, and the Yarra Valley, Molly made her first trip to Napa Valley as an intern for the 2017 vintage and fell in love with the beauty and dynamic nature of Napa Valley and its wines. She returned in 2018 and joined the Spottswoode winemaking team as a harvest intern, becoming part of the team full time in 2019. Today, working alongside Aron, Molly helps to oversee the farming of the historic Spottswoode Estate Vineyard and the making of the winery’s acclaimed wines.
Molly combines her passion for winemaking with a passion for the environment. She holds a Certificate in Sustainable Business Strategy through Harvard Business School Online and, in addition to helping craft the wines in both the vineyard and the cellar, she manages Spottswoode’s B Corp certification and environmental initiatives, which includes measuring our GHG emissions as part of our IWCA membership. Molly also sits on the board of Napa Green and is involved in many other community driven environmental initiatives.
Nikki Silvestri is, first and foremost, a mother of two, wife, and sci-fi nerd. Nikki is also a serial non-profit executive director and entrepreneur (currently the CEO and founder of Soil and Shadow), a board member of Greenpeace USA, and an international keynote speaker.
Nikki’s unique approach to inclusion, leadership and organizational development takes cues from nature, building models of “social fertility” to weave them into a Joy and Impact™ framework. Her work also encourages a rigorous and shame-free approach to acknowledging our societal shadows and blind spots, especially when attempting to balance the triple bottom line (ecology, economy, and equity) in times of uncertainty, climate/health feedback loops, and increasing volatility.
Nikki’s wide-ranging career has taken her from presentations at the White House and negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency to intimate workshops with local businesses and small retail organizing. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including ELLE Magazine’s Gold Award and OxFam America’s Act Local, Think Global Award, and she was named one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans.
You can find out more at www.nikkisilvestri.com and www.soilandshadow.com
A Bronx native, Cru Luv Wine’s President and CEO Jermaine Stone was raised worlds away from wine country with plans to become a rapper. By age 19 he had already made appearances on XM Radio, BET and Hot 97, and had the attention of prominent figures in music including Chris Lighty and LL Cool J.
A temporary job packing boxes in the shipping department at Zachys Wine Auctions, though, persuaded him to make a career in fine wine. There, Jermaine would begin an accomplished 9-year career with them, learning the intricacies of fine wine warehousing and shipping, client service, and auctioneering. He rose to the position of Logistics Manager, overseeing the inbound and outbound transport of $60 million worth of fine wine annually.
In 2013 Jermaine left Zachys to become one of the founding Directors of Wally’s Auctions, the New York-based subsidiary of a major Los Angeles wine retailer. At Wally’s, he used talents and expertise in auctioneering, operations, and business development to co-create and implement the full client experience, including the auction website and online bidding application; live simulcasted auction bidding; warehousing of collections for sale; and distribution and fulfillment of client purchases. In addition to these major operational roles, he served as an auctioneer and public speaker at commercial and charity auctions and provided strategic advice to Wally’s President and Vice President.
After leaving Wallys, Jermaine founded Cru Luv Selections, a New York-based wine branding and marketing firm dedicated to blending the best elements of wine and hip hop culture.
Morgan’s early exposure to wine and winemaking was thanks to his father Joel Peterson, who had started a small passion project called Ravenswood Winery— a job for which he was steadily not making money while working out of a small building along the big curve on Broadway. Though always enamored with the wine industry, Morgan bypassed a traditional Viticulture and Enology degree and studied History and Political Science at Vassar College. After undergrad, he enrolled at Columbia University with an eye towards a Masters in American Studies. meanwhile working at a small shop in the Upper East Side called Pet Wines. There, he met Chris Cottrell, with whom he became fast friends.
Caine Thompson, Head of Sustainability for O’Neill Vintners & Distillers and Managing Director of Robert Hall Winery has cemented his industry leadership in sustainable winegrowing and operations throughout his wine industry career.
In 2017, he joined Rabble Wine Company and as President (prior to O’Neill’s acquisition in 2021), he led the brand with the Earth in mind. Several of these sustainability programs he started continue at Rabble today through Caine’s direction at O’Neill (1% for the planet). He also initiates and implements green practices, leading the charge for sustainable certified for 200+ growers (15,000 acres) on behalf of the entire O’Neill organization. Since joining O’Neill Vintners & Distillers in October 2020, Caine has developed and launched a regenerative viticulture case study that will impact wine farming practices for years to come, which has now evolved to 1,000 in conversion to regenerative organic.
Sarah Unger is the Co-Founder of CULTIQUE, a cultural insights and strategy consultancy. Led by Unger and Founder/CEO Linda Ong, the premium boutique crafts bespoke cultural POVs for forward-looking businesses in media, entertainment, tech and consumer spaces. Launched in Fall 2020, CULTIQUE unites thought leaders, industry disruptors, academics, creatives and experts to maximize the impact of brands, content, and products in a world of constant change.
An award-winning cultural expert, Unger and her team of analysts are devoted to working with businesses such as AMEX GBT, Airbnb, YouTube, Apple, WarnerMedia, Disney/ABC, and NBCU navigate fast-changing times, recalibrate for new audiences, and cultivate growth in an uncertain world. Unger was named Media Play News’ 40 Under 40 list in October 2019 and has been a frequent commentator in media such as Forbes, Fortune, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast.
Monika is an environmental pioneer and management consultant with extensive national and international experience in helping people and organizations turn potential to success. She has a strong background in collaborative leadership in cross-cultural, multi-industry environments and public-private consortium. As an experienced project manager and change agent she is committed to developing sustainable organizations. Her skills include: finding organizational forms to fit the tasks of innovating a new technology; preparing the infrastructure and raising the public awareness for product commercialization; valuing diversity to create synergy. Monika’s work focus is on sustainable business strategies and renewable technologies, especially in the solar thermal realm. She holds a M.S. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.
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