Our Mission

Celebrating the quality and diversity of artisan cheeses produced in California through partnerships, outreach and education.

History

We credit Clark Wolf, a renowned food consultant and former Bay Area cheese professional, with developing the original idea for a California cheesemaker’s guild. He realized there needed to be an organization that represented the plethora of cheesemakers across the state. It was 2006 when he reserved a URL (cacheeseguild.org) and gathered the forces of several local visionaries including Jennifer Bice, Jill Basch, Lynne Devereux, Juliana Uruburu and Laura Martinez. The group created bylaws, a website, and started soliciting memberships. Non-profit status came in 2008. John Mackey provided enormous support as a pro bono attorney. Maureen Cunnie provided enormous support in getting cheesemaker education off the ground in partnership with College of Marin.

As we celebrate more than a decade of service to California’s artisan cheese community, our Guild has blossomed into the foremost cheese organization in the State. Our hundreds of members represent the breadth of California from northern coastal counties to the southern border, from the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley. We form a collaborative community of makers, mongers, distributors, food writers, and food safety experts. Our cheeses are sold across the State and beyond. We host and participate in dozens of events and educational forums each year.

Anthea Stolz
Executive Director

Anthea began working with cheese at Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, MI, after graduating from college with degrees in Economics and French Literature. It became clear that she preferred Beaufort to Baudelaire, and what she thought would be a summer job behind the cheese counter turned into three years of eye-opening learning and tasting. She moved to San Francisco in 2007 and worked at The Pasta Shop in Oakland, CA, before moving on to manage the cheese program for the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses. She has worked with the California Artisan Cheese Guild since 2015.

2020 Board of Directors

Officers

Felice Charleton
President

Felice is the National Sales Director for Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. where she leads continuing national expansion as well as new product launch. Prior to joining the cheese industry, she was the Director of Sales and Marketing for a California olive oil company and Director of New Business for a California organic grains supplier. She was raised in Bolinas on 50 acres and has strong roots in California agriculture.

Anastasia Stuyt
Vice President

Anastasia is the Cheesemaker for Stuyt Dairy Farmstead Cheese Co. which is located in the small town of Escalon, California. Anastasia has worked there since her parents started the company in 2015. Her father taught her the art of cheese making. Not only is Anastasia the cheesemaker, but she also cares for the cheese throughout its aging process, is a certified lab technician and wrote their Food Safety Plan.

Brittany Hartwell
Secretary

Born and raised on the northern Sonoma Coast, Brittany has always been surrounded by food production. Her experiences raising livestock to feed her family, picking apples in her neighbor’s orchard, and tasting the freshest of fresh chèvres from a friend’s dairy goats nurtured her passion for the artisan food industry. Brittany has traveled the globe and worked as a pastry chef, bartender, and cheesemonger. She is currently the store director at the Palace Market in Point Reyes Station.

Tim Welsh
Treasurer

Born and raised in the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah, Tim studied at Oregon State University and received his BS in Finance from the David Eccles school of business at the University of Utah. Pre-cheese, Tim spent 15 years in the accounting, finance, and custom software development world. He is a foodie, which led to the creation of Beehive Cheese Company in 2005 with his brother-in-law, Pat Ford. Tim has three boys – Britton, Hayden and Cole, who all currently work at Beehive Cheese. He enjoys music, travel, cooking and supporting his community.

Sue Conley, Cowgirl Creamery

Sue’s love of food and community started early and came west with her in 1976 when she moved to San Francisco. She made her mark in a number of renowned Bay Area kitchens before opening Bette’s Oceanview Diner where she served delicious everyday meals to an eclectic mix of Berkeley students, workers, and neighbors. After 11 years at Bette’s, Sue sought a quieter pace and sold her shares in Bette’s. She moved to Point Reyes Station, CA, where, along with her friend Peggy Smith, she co-founded Cowgirl Creamery in 1997. Over 20 years later, Cowgirl Creamery has won dozens of awards and grown to operate two creameries and four retail stores. Sue remains a tireless champion of West Marin’s organic dairy and farming community.

Jennifer Giambroni, California Milk Advisory Board

Jennifer is the Director of Communications for the California Milk Advisory Board, where she manages an integrated public relations program supporting all CMAB initiatives in the U.S. and overseas. She joined the CMAB in 2009 from the PR agency side of the business, where she conducted consumer marketing communications programs for national and international food and beverage companies. She is a former president of the San Francisco Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has been active on the board of the International Association of Business Communicators’ (SF/IABC) San Francisco Chapter.

Jenny MacKenzie, Tomales Farmstead Creamery

I started working with cheese in 2014 when I landed an apprenticeship at Appleton Creamery in ME. I fell in love with small scale farmstead cheesemaking, and especially goats, and have consistently stayed in the industry since then. Most of my work has been as a cheesemaker with a brief stint as a cheese monger. I moved to Sonoma County in 2016 to make cheese at Redwood Hill. I have since become one of the cheese makers at Tomales Farmstead Creamery in Tomales, CA where I am happy to be back with the goats and making small scale artisan cheese.

Liz Rubin, Bi-Rite Market

My name is Liz Rubin and I have worked in the Bay Area cheese community for over 9 years. I have worked as a monger for Mission Cheese from 2011 to 2013 and Bi-Rite Market from 2013 to 2015 and then again from 2016 to the present. I was a cheese buyer for Bom Dia Market for their year of existence, 2015-2016. I am currently the Category Sales Manager for Alcohol for the Birite Family of Businesses. Alongside my primary jobs, I participated as the Cheese Committee Chair for the Good Food Awards 3 separate times, the most recent being in 2019 and have done consulting for The Cheese School of San Francisco and Fishers Cheese and Wine.

Raymond Rumiano, Rumiano Cheese Company

My name is Raymond Rumiano, and I’m a 4th generation co-owner of Rumiano Cheese Company, founder and cheesemaker for Miles Oak Cheese, and founding partner at Board At Home. I live in Chico, CA with my wife Kayla and our three dogs, where we enjoy rock climbing, being outdoors, and eating at our favorite restaurants downtown.

Rory Stamp, Cowgirl Creamery

Rory Stamp, the Marketing Manager at Cowgirl Creamery, has worked in the artisan cheese industry for almost a decade. A native Vermonter, Rory began his career milking on an organic dairy, later training at the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese, making cheese Consider Bardwell Farm, and working as a cheesemonger and educator at Formaggio Kitchen. As the Director of Sales and Marketing for Shelburne Farms, Rory joined the Vermont Cheese Council and served on the Board and chaired the Marketing Committee, while spearheaded education for the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival in 2018 and 2019. An ACS CCP and former chair of Slow Food Vermont, Rory won the 2018 Winter Cheesemonger Invitational and was named the World’s 4th Best Cheesemonger at the 2019 Concours Mondial du Fromage.

Luciana Villanueva, Gus’s Community Market

Born in Italy, Luciana’s roots began deeply entrenched in the culture of food. She currently serves as the cheese coordinator for Gus’s Community Market. After a robust career in sales/marketing, Luciana wanted to do something FUN and that is when the world of cheese was discovered. An ACS Certified Cheese Professional, Luciana loves exploring new cheeses/pairings and is continually inspired by our local cheesemaking community. Living la vita queso !!

Andi Wandt, Tomales Farmstead Creamery

Andi entered the world of cheese at Whole Foods Market, serving in variety of roles including wine and beer buyer, cheesemonger, and Specialty team leader. She became an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional in 2016. This experience inspired her to leave the counter in south Florida and move to Vermont to pursue a career in cheesemaking. After joining Shelburne Farms as an assistant cheesemaker, she became Head Cheesemaker in 2018. Andi served as Secretary of the Vermont Cheese Council and chair of the 2019 Vermont Cheesemakers Festival. She moved to Point Reyes Station, California to immerse herself in the unique terroir of another exceptional cheesemaking and agricultural region. Andi joined the cheesemaking team at Tomales Farmstead Creamery in January 2020 and serves as co-chair of the Guild Education committee. Andi recently joined the Point Reyes Farmers Market team as Market Manager for the 2020 season to support local farmers and producers in providing essential goods to the West Marin community.