Speakers

Dave Whitmer, NVG Board of Director and former Napa County Agricultural Commissioner
Napa native, Dave Whitmer retired from the County of Napa in 2013 after 33 years of service - the last 20 years as the Agricultural Commissioner and Sealer of Weights and Measures.
In retirement, Dave is spending quality time with Loie, his wife of 38 years and doing some traveling, both domestic and international. He is passionate about working to make a difference in our community and in addition to serving on the Board of Directors of the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation, is volunteering as a Guiding Coalition member of the Napa Circles Initiative, a local anti-poverty campaign; serves on the Board of Directors of Sustainable Napa County; is a member of the Napa Housing Coalition and a member of the Marketing and Asset Development Committee for the Napa Valley Community Foundation.

​Sarah Ferguson, CEO & Co-Founder, Ruetd
Sarah co-founded Ruetd in December 2022 to assist winemakers & vineyard managers with recording and tracking critical vineyard information. Since January 2023 Ruetd has developed dashboards for clients to effectively communicate financial trends, vineyard activities, pesticide applications, and vineyard maps with interactive geospatial layers. From 2017 to 2022 Sarah served as the Research Manager and Viticulturist at Silverado Farming Company where she established their first research winery. She has worked alongside the teams at Napa Valley Grapegrowers, Silverado Farming, Dana Estates, Opus One, Benovia, Sterling Vineyards & Roederer Estates after earning her Masters in Viticulture & Enology from UC Davis in 2015. 

Scott Steinmaus, PhD, Head of Plant Sciences, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Dr. Steinmaus received a BS in Plant Science/Plant Pathology and a PhD in Plant Biology from the University of California at Davis. He worked as a Staff Research Associate in the Weed Science program while a graduate student at UCD. He was a National Research Initiative USDA Postdoc Fellow Plant Physiologist at University of California Riverside in the Botany and Plant Science Department. He joined the Horticulture and Crop Science Department at Cal Poly in 1999 and moved into the Biological Sciences Department in 2005 before returning in 2014 to HCS as department head. His area of teaching and research is weed science as it pertains to weeds in agriculture and invasive plants in wild lands. 

Brian Lilla, Director “Children of the Vine”
Brian Lilla has dedicated over twenty years to directing documentary films large and small. From his award-winning investigative documentary Patagonia Rising to the intimate Tale Of Two Bondage Models, Brian’s work spans across themes of environmental, LGBTQ and social justice. Making films has taken him from the Northern Patagonia Icecap to downtown Tokyo to the streets of Oakland. Brian thrives on getting outside his comfort zone to capture stories that bring voice to marginalized communities. His work has been broadcast on Netflix, Discovery Channel and many broadcast outlets across the globe. Variety Magazine has described Lilla’s work as “Intelligent and awe inspiring”, while the New York Times wrote his work is “Beautifully filmed and patiently explained”. Lilla lives in Napa, California with his wife and two children.

Ivo Jeramaz, Winemaker & Vice President of Vineyards & Production, ​Grgich Hills Estate
Growing up in Croatia as a part of a family that grew grapes and made wine for their own enjoyment, Ivo never imagined that his future would revolve around wine. When he came to Napa Valley with the help of his uncle, Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, however, he quickly fell in love with the scenic beauty of the area and became fascinated by winemaking. In his more than three decades at Grgich Hills Estate, Ivo has maintained his uncle’s style of classical winemaking, while also blazing a trail for himself as a pioneer of regenerative viticulture. 

Jen Borgen, Deputy AG Commissioner, Napa County Agricultural Commissioner's Office
Jen has been working at the AG Commissioner's Office since 2010. She started in the insect trapping program and became an AG Inspector in 2017. She became the Deputy AG Commissioner in the Pesticide Use Enforcement Program in 2023. Jen has a passion for protecting worker safety and the environment.

Nan Singhasemanon, Assistant Director, Department of Pesticide Regulation​
Nan is Assistant Director over the Pesticide Program Division’s Environmental Monitoring and Worker Health and Safety branches. Nan has worked for DPR since 1994 in the Environmental Monitoring Branch, including 20 years in its Surface Water Protection Program as an environmental scientist, supervisor, and manager. He also served as DPR’s interagency coordinator with the State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards for 15 years, and as a member of the national SFIREG’s Environmental Quality Issues Working Committee, which is a platform for states to work with U.S. EPA on challenging pesticide issues. Nan is a graduate of UC Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Toxicology.

John Roncoroni, Weed Science Farm Advisor, Emeritus, UC Cooperative Extension
John received both his BS in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning, with an emphasis in Agriculture, and his MS in Horticulture from UC Davis. He worked as a Staff Research Associate in the UC Davis (now) Department of Plant Sciences working in all aspects of weed management for 25 years. He became the UC Cooperative Extension Weed Science Farm Advisor and UCIPM Affiliate Advisor in Napa County in March 2007. He worked closely with grape growers and conducted research trials in Napa, Sonoma, and throughout Northern California. He retired from UC Cooperative Extension in July of 2020, but retained an Emeritus Advisor title and continues to advise new UC Advisors and growers. He is a volunteer at the Center for Land-based Learning and advises the California Sustainable Winegrowers Association on weed management issues.

​NVG's Health & Safety Policy