About Us
Meet Our Staff

Ken Strunk

General Manager / Chief Executive Officer

When Ken Strunk landed his first job in the food industry stocking shelves as a grocery store clerk he never dreamed it would be the start of a career that has spanned 30 years.  Today, store shelves are stocked with products from the two companies for which he serves as General Manager and Chief Executive Officer - Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery and Green Valley Organics.

Ken joined Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery, Inc. as General Manager and CEO in 2007. With his dynamic energy and managerial experience, Ken has been instrumental in the growth of the family business and shares Owner Jennifer Bice's vision of quality and sustainability, which includes the installation of a new solar energy system that will offset 100 percent of the projected energy needs for the creamery.  It also includes the development and introduction of a new brand - Green Valley Organics' Lactose Free yogurt, a line of real cow dairy, lactose free yogurts and kefirs, which launched nationwide in August 2010.

Ken believes that by creating an environment where people feel they are important to the success of the company and have their opinions heard, they work harder, are more creative and invested in the business. With the creation of six new management positions, the successful introduction of Redwood Hill Farm's kefir - the #2 product in the natural category - and now the introduction of Green Valley Organics, his "people first" philosophy is working. However significant his contributions to the company's bottom line, Ken is most proud of the opportunities he's created for employees, including a 401K and a healthcare plan that covers all employees and their families.

Ken has extensive experience in new product development and brand management.  Prior to joining Redwood Hill, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Jackson-Mitchell Meyenberg Goat Milk Company for seven years. Previously he worked for several national brands in sales and operations as a regional manager and account executive, among other management positions.  Throughout his career, Ken has been recognized consistently as a top performer.

Active in the local community, Ken has been a member of the Rotary Club for 11 years and previously served as the membership chair. He has also served on the board of directors of the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce.  Ken and Jill, his wife of 27 years, are active in animal rescue. They have two grown children and four grandchildren.  Ken's interests are wide-ranging and include an enthusiastic love of the great outdoors.  From water skiing and fishing to off-road motorcycles, Ken brings the same enthusiastic spirit to play as he does to his work.

Atanas Draganski

Creamery Plant Manager / Chief Operating Officer

"Nasko," as we call him, began milking goats at Redwood Hill Farm over 13 years ago after emigrating from Bulgaria. Since then, Atanas has done it all at the farm and creamery - from milking goats, making cheese and yogurt, delivering products to stores, and now, overseeing the creamery and its 45 employees! 

His hard work, pride and enthusiasm have vaulted him to the top of operations, and he's living the "American dream" with Zlatina and their daughter, Alexandra. When he's not working, Atanas enjoys spending time with his family, playing soccer and tennis, and his computers.

Darlene Hawley, CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Darlene is a Sonoma County native. She had six years of private accounting experience and thirteen years of public accounting experience prior to joining the accounting team at Redwood Hill Farm. Darlene had provided services in individual, partnership and corporate taxation, financial accounting and consulting during those years in public practice. Darlene is a graduate of Sonoma State University and a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. She also is a member of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise group and a board member of the Humane Society of Sonoma County.
"My experience in public accounting has allowed me to work in a variety of fields with a variety of clients. I enjoy continuing my connection with the dairy industry, as my father was a part of this industry his entire working career both in the Azores and after immigrating to the US. On a more personal note, my husband, Bill, and I enjoy all the wonders that Sonoma County has to offer and spending time with our dogs. I also, enjoy traveling, many outdoor activities and live theatre."

Andrew Malmanis

Accounting Manager

Andrew Malmanis was a public accountant for 5 years before joining the Redwood Hill Farm family in 2011. He graduated from Sonoma State University with Distinction as a BS Major in Business Administration—Concentration in Accounting.
 
Andrew is homegrown here in Sonoma County. His hobbies and interests include gardening, computers, home improvement, four wheeling, rebuilding cars, scuba, traveling, hiking/camping, and burning man.  His motto: work hard, play hard, have fun…

Sharon Bice

Marketing Communications Manager

Sharon grew up with the dairy goats as did the entire Bice family, and is our resident artist and photographer. All of the beautiful Redwood Hill logos, labels, graphic arts, food styling and photos are a result of Sharon's artistic talents. As Jennifer's "go to" person in the office for eleven years, Sharon coordinates the events we're involved in, assists in advertising and public relations, attends food shows, even helps with showing goats during the show season! 

Sharon's interests include painting, photography, gardening and music. She also finds time to volunteer as the editor for the Redwood Empire Dairy Goat Association and is on the board of directors for Community Support Network. She has two grown children, Levi and Jessica, who have also taken part in projects at Redwood Hill Farm over the years. Sharon loves living on the Russian River in nearby Forestville.

Julie Foley

Administrative Services Manager

Julie joined the Redwood Hill team in July of 2009 and has made a positive impact in our administrative office. Julie has a B.S. Degree in business and has experience with contract negotiation as well as event planning and management.

Sonoma County has been her home since 1994. She lives in Sebastopol with her husband Jim, their son J.T., daughter Cassidy, and a black Lab named Stella Blue.

A Wisconsin native, she is a Green Bay Packers fan (we love cheeseheads!), has a passion for cooking (and eating), good wine and gardening.

Administration

L-R: Nancy Lorenz, Marketing & Communications Assistant, Cheryl Vargas, Human Resources and Records Administrator.
Also shown: Crissy the Office Dog, Vice President of All Good Things.

David Bice

Events & Community Relations

David grew up on the farm and showed goats in 4-H with his brothers and sisters before his radio/dj career brought him to Hawaii & Florida. An avid plant lover, he also had a landscape business and plant nursery.

His love of the farm and our Sonoma County area brought him back to Redwood Hill in the Spring 0f 2008. David writes for the Redwood Hill Farm & Green Valley Organics websites and manages the social media for both as well. His passion for natural, quality food is evident at the many events, cheese shops and food shows he travels to while representing the farm & creamery.

David is an active volunteer in KOWS fm community radio, Landpaths and the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center. Gardening, motorcycling, and hiking are a few of his varied interests.

Alejandra Aceves

Customer Service Manager

Since 2005, "Alex" has been the heart of our office, facilitating communication between departments, answering customer questions with enthusiasm and most recently, managing our Customer Service office. In her spare time, Alex loves to dance and enjoys reading.

Alex and her new husband, Jose, reside in the local town of Graton.  Her favorite quote is, "Do what you do so well that they want to see it again and bring their friends."  Alex obviously takes this quote to heart because it is a pleasure to watch her "in action".

Customer Service & Sales Team

Customer Service, Sales & Marketing for Redwood Hill Farm delicious goat milk products, Front: David Bice, Alex Aceves. Back: Julie Foley, Augusta Bates. Not pictured: Dori Schack.

Gary deParis

Operations & Cultured Products Manager

Gary brings an extensive dairy background to Redwood Hill. He's been involved in operations for five major northern California dairies since 1979, and he has a B.S. degree in dairy manufacturing from Cal Poly/San Luis Obispo. 

Our Operations Manager since 2007, Gary works with all our creamery departments to keep things running smoothly. He's a skilled mechanic, and having him at Redwood Hill is instrumental in keeping all of our machinery finely tuned and operating efficiently. 

Gary and his wife Judy are both motorcycle enthusiasts. He even raced motorcycles in the past making him well suited for the "fast life" at the creamery.

Ann Caswell

Quality Control Manager

Ann joined Redwood Hill in 2010 and brings with her over 12 years of quality control experience in the beverage/food industry.  Ann has a B.S. degree in dairy manufacturing from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.  As our Quality Control Supervisor, Ann oversees the quality of our products and manufacturing practices to ensure the creamery produces high quality products for our customers to enjoy.  She also manages the laboratory where we test our products throughout our manufacturing process.

Sonoma County has been Ann's home since 1999.  When she is not at the creamery, Ann enjoys hiking, cooking, traveling and spending time with her daughter Henna, son Kyle, and playful cat Jasmine.

Yogurt Production Team

The team responsible for our delicious, award-winning goat milk yogurt!
L to R: Cecelia Avalos-Flores (Quality Control), Jesus Pacheco (Supervisor), Carlos Frias, Ventura Ventura, Omar Solorio, Georgi Karabelov (Supervisor), Eduardo Lopez, Jeff Sims, Juan Rodriguez (CIP and Pasteurization). Not pictured: Alfredo Monter-Jacinto.

Milk & Kefir Production Team

Bottling our fresh milk and probiotic kefir each  week, L to R: Benjamin Vazquez, Luis Gonzales, and Ian Montgomery.

Patty Beverly

Cheese Department Manager & Cheesemaker

Patty has been a friend of Redwood Hill Farm since she was a young 4-H'er, and we showed our goats at the Sonoma County Fair together. She learned the art of cheesemaking under the tutelage of Jennifer Bice, and has worked for Redwood Hill since 2005. 

Patty especially enjoys the tradition and romance of cheesemaking, and nurtures the process from beginning to end. For her, artisan cheese making is a labor of great love and her reward is our customers' appreciation of fine, hand-crafted cheese.

When she's not in the creamery's aging rooms, Patty enjoys hiking, gardening avidly, and listening to singer Michael Buble. She has a daughter, Abbey, a son Andrew, 3 cats; Jasper, Cupcake and Tux and one very sweet little pup Brutus.

The Cheese Team

The crew that crafts our award winning artisan cheeses each and every week, L to R back row: Wilfredo Ramirez, Luciano Bejar, Daniel Doughty, Maribel Ramirez. Front row: Susana Dominguez, Assistant Cheesemaker Erick Lopez, Roselia Camacho.

Graham Goodenough

Warehouse Manager

Graham joined the company in July of 2010 and is excited to be working for a thriving and wholesome company in the community where he grew up as a teenager.
Graham graduated with a business degree in 2007 from San Diego State University. He is looking forward to applying his life/school/work experience and personality to his new position to see what kind of impact he may be able to make to the company.

Shipping & Warehouse Team

The indispensable crew that maintains our warehouse and preps our milk, cheese, yogurt and kefir for shipping, L to R: Rudolfo Pacheco, Rosa Alcantar, and Gamaliel Solis. Not pictured: Ian Montgomery

Creamery Sanitation Team

Meet our creamery Sanitation crew, L to R: Marcelo Aguirre, Leo Gamino, Gustavo Mosqueda, David Munoz and Supervisor Enrique Vargas.

Jim Coyle

Creamery Maintenance Manager

Jim brings an extensive engineering maintenance background to Redwood Hill Creamery, having been involved in the fabrication and maintenance of automatic production machinery since 1969, and has been responsible for the managing of mechanical maintenance teams at food production facilities since 1999.
Our Maintenance Manager since 2010, Jim leads our creamery mechanical team, manages our parts inventory control and our preventative maintenance schedules to keep things running smoothly. He's a skilled tradesperson whose work here at the Redwood Hill Creamery is instrumental in keeping all of our production facility equipment operating efficiently. 
Jim and his wife Lori are both enjoy living in West Sonoma County, having migrated here in 2002 from Humboldt County. Jim's hobby is restoring and riding bicycles and motorcycles.

Creamery Maintenance & Mechanics

Responsible for keeping it running smooth at the creamery day in and day out:
 Mike Jay and Matt Eastham.

Scott Bice

Farm Manager

The youngest of the ten Bice children, Scott has been with Redwood Hill for 8 years at both the farm and the creamery. Warehouse/Shipping Manager and Cheese Plant manager are only two of the hats he's worn, and these days, his love and knowledge of dairy goats keeps him on the farm. As Farm Manager, his "commitment to excellence" shows in many ways, especially in the Redwood Hill breeding program at our Humane Certified® farm.

Scott and his wife Cristi have two children, Nicole and Colton. They represent the third generation of Bices growing up with our goats on the farm. Cristi and Nicole help feed the baby goat kids each spring, and help with the gardens. They share their lives with a sweet older pit-bull mix named "Smokey." Besides his interest in dairy goats, Scott is a passionate gardener, a great cook, and a sports enthusiast.

Trinity Smith

Herd Manager

Although Trinity grew up with her own dairy goats, she has played an integral role in the success of our farm for many years. As a teenager, she clipped show goats at Redwood Hill, and began working full time for us in 2005.

As herd manager, Trinity works closely with Scott to maintain the superior breeding program our herd is known for. She finds interacting with the goats on a daily basis especially rewarding, and the results are obvious in the health and beauty of our herd, and the many 'National Champions' awarded over the years.

Trinity holds a bachelor's degree in exercise science from Pacific University in Oregon. Besides all things "goaty", she enjoys sports, and was a premier softball pitcher at Pacific University. She and her life partner, Keven, manage their own herd known as 'Goat-San,' and their dog, Maya, is a fixture on our farm, always on the lookout for fresh goat milk!

The Farm Team

It all starts on the farm! Meet the skilled and caring team who care for the prized goats on our Humane Certified^® Farm. L to R: Jeff Bohn, Dairy Manager Steve Considine and Ben Rupchis. Not pictured: Veronica Weaver.