Ashley Lindsay holds several degrees from the University of Hawaii and Oregon State University in Agriculture Sciences fields and Agricultural Education. Since 2017, she has been an Adjunct Professor at Chemeketa College – NW Wine Program, teaching various courses related to agricultural production and vineyard management. In 2015, Ashley and her husband Brian purchased and developed a 40 acre fallow farm. They planted 32 acres of heirloom Cider Apples and Perry Pears, creating Pleasant Valley Cider Apples. Pleasant Valley Cider Apples provides premium quality, sustainably grown fruit and juice for Cideries in the West Coast. In 2020, Ashley started a new company Pleasant Valley Consulting, which serves both the Cider Orchards and Vineyard industries to assist other growers to produce high quality fruit for cider and wine.

Robert “Chas” Runco provides licensing, regulatory, and commercial transaction advice to clients in the alcohol beverage industry. Chas advises large and small corporate clients on a variety of business matters. His practice focuses on advising wineries, breweries, distilleries, distributors, and retailers in regulatory and transactional matters. His experience in regulated industries has made him a preferred attorney for clients in the hospitality industry. He also works with trade organizations in regulatory and legislative capacities. By working with state regulators and legislators on behalf of trade associations, Chas helps advance the interests of the liquor industry at the rule-making and legislative levels.

Autumn Stoscheck co-owns, with her husband Ezra Sherman, Eve’s Cidery– a small orchard based cidery located at the intersection of the Northern Appalachian Plateau and the Southern Finger Lakes on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, in New York State. Autumn spends her days growing certified organic cider apples and making them into world class ciders.

Haritz Rodriguez, aka Ciderzale, is an independent journalist and marketing consultant in the agrifood field with a special focus on cider. He has recently joined the EDA Drinks & Wine Campus team as the main educator on cider within the university of gastronomic sciences Basque Culinary Center. Haritz works for different local and international agents in the world of cider, participates as a judge in cider competitions and co-organizes festivals and fairs such as Sidrama (Portugal), Sagardo Forum (Basque Country) and NICA (Norway). In 2018, he promoted the creation of Ciderlands, the cider tourism network. Haritz has been trained as an Accredited Pommelier by the UK Beer & Cider Academy, as a Certified Cider Guide by the ACA and by the tasting panel of the PDO Euskal Sagardoa. In addition, he organizes trips for cider makers, journalists and writers and has contributed to their works with both photographs and information.

Jill Westra is the Senior Manager of Sustainability at The Boston Beer Company, which includes the Angry Orchard brand. Jill is an environmental scientist with a 20-year career in environmental consulting and corporate sustainability management. Based in the Kansas City metro area, she also serves as an elected board member of her local water utility and is on the governing boards of two local non-profit organizations, Missouri River Relief and Climate + Energy Project.

Kate Pinsley began her cider journey with a pint of Original Sin served in a sketchy bar in the East Village. Her next stop was the Finger Lakes with its bounty of upstate cideries. In the course of completing her master’s thesis on apple tannins at Cornell University, Kate learned cidermaking and became quite the cider nerd. Kate is now the Senior Director of Beverage at Schilling Cider in Seattle, leading the cider production and R&D teams in their mission to create quality canned cider.

Jennie Dorsey is the Education Operations Director for the American Cider Association. She is also a founding member of Pomme Boots Society for women in the Cider Industry and has held numerous positions since she first entered the Cider Industry over a decade ago. Jennie actually began her journey in the coffee industry where she was a nationally ranked competition barista and trainer specializing in sensory analysis with a focus on food pairings.  The skills honed in competition led her on the path of beverage discovery, where she fell in love with cider and its unmatched pairing possibilities. Jennie is a working member of the Cider Certification team, and she was given the distinguished award of Cider Server of the Year in 2018 by the ACA. She is passionate about food and beverage of all kinds, cinema, and vintage lifestyle, and she can always be spotted by her brightly colored hair.

Brent Miles-Wagner is the owner of Brown Hat Consulting, which he started in 2019 to provide an expert resource for new and expanding cider companies. He was the founding Head Cidermaker at Seattle Cider Company, where he wrote the business plan and developed their lineup of innovative and award-winning ciders. He then became Head Cidermaker at Sly Clyde Ciderworks, who engaged him to build their new cidery from the ground up. Last year he completed a Master’s in Entrepreneurship from Uppsala University in Sweden, writing his thesis on the challenges facing Swedish craft cideries.

Jen Curs worked in non-cider beverage production before joining the Bauman’s team in early 2020. She completed the CINA Foundation to Cidermaking course and within a couple years was in charge of the Specialty Cider program at Bauman’s. In addition to managing the barrel-aging program, Jen is responsible for all harvest blending as well as post-ferment blends on the farm in Gervais, Oregon. In her spare time, Jen loves foraging for wild mushrooms, cooking and adopting 3-legged dogs and cats.

Dion Stepanski is the co-owner and head cider-maker at Presque Isle Farm Cider in northeast Michigan. Dion and his partner Molly Stepanski began farming organic vegetables on his six-generation family farm in 2014. He started making cider from local foraged apples shortly after, and in 2020, PIF did their first commercial pressing. In 2022, they opened a taproom in Alpena, Michigan, and expanded their cider offerings. PIF produces a diverse range of ciders, from traditional wild fermentation and high-tannin styles to sessionable, fruit-forward sweet ciders.