| Meet our tribe of sole sisters
We have a rock-star team of experts in event production, fundraising and development, corporate sponsorships, volunteer wrangling, “The women at Wine Women & Shoes are some of the most professional, fun, and caring women I have ever met. It’s why the model – Lauren Blacketter, Board Member Midland Rape Crisis and Children’s Advocacy Center| Midland, Texas
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Elaine Honig
Elaine is a brilliant accessorizer and serial entrepreneur who thrives on creating brands, building businesses and helping nonprofits thrive. A native Oklahoman, she paid for her Economics degree at Tufts University by running a successful student rental management business. While pursuing post-college real estate projects in San Francisco, she met and married a promising young vintner, which refocused her enterprising spirit on building the fledgling Honig wine brand. Over the next 21 years, she marketed, branded, and pounded the pavement growing the winery that started in a garage into a nationally recognized and respected Napa Valley brand. Elaine developed Wine Women & Shoes as a local community fundraiser that would double as a marketing opportunity for Napa Valley wines—a total win-win, whose formula proved (and continues to prove) irresistible. Today, Elaine is an expert in the fine art of wine & shoe pairing (a.k.a. SHOEMMELIER), as well as an active participant in her Napa Valley community. She has served on the boards of several Napa Valley agricultural and land trusts, is currently on the board of the di Rosa art center, and has been honored as an Outstanding Woman in Agriculture. She and her loveable dog Houdini make their home in St. Helena.
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Sarah Obialero With experience in graphics, wine, events, and luxury retail experience, Sarah can slip on nearly any style and know exactly how to rock it. She grew up in Ithaca, New York, and began her career designing graphics and promotional materials for her hometown’s Hangar Theatre. In 2004, she headed west to San Diego to join her then-boyfriend/now husband and started working at In Motion Events as their in-house graphic designer, assisting with the production of large-scale events like Komen's Race for the Cure. When her husband's career relocated them to Napa Valley, Sarah scored a position as Assistant Buyer and Lead Visual Merchandiser for Darioush Winery’s luxe retail boutique. Today, she lives in Boise, Idaho and heads up WW&S branding, web and graphic design. When she’s not dreaming up our next great event design, you’ll most likely find her in running shoes with her chocolate lab Porter. |
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Allie Olcese
Allie grew up in Sacramento, doing volunteer work and loving shoes since the time she could walk. Since she also found herself drawn to logos, labels and packaging, she channeled her artistic energy into a graphic design degree at the Art Institute in Sacramento. Fortunately for us, after graduation, she moved to Santa Rosa and stumbled upon WW&S, just as we were hunting for another creative force to add to our team. Needless to say, the shoe fit perfectly, and the rest is history.
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Jessica Thornton Some people were born for this business, and Jessica is one of them. Her mother worked as a private chef to the stars and instilled in her daughter a profound appreciation for great food, fine wines and giving back to those in need. Originally from Lake Tahoe, Jessica studied Public Relations at ASU and started her career working events, planning and executing worldwide VIP concerts and spectacles before following her bliss to Napa Valley. Since landing in Napa, she has lent her expertise cultivating winery relations for the glamorous and thriving Napa Valley Film Festival as well as the epically hip BottleRock music festival. When she’s not swirling and sniffing out new wine donors and partners for our events, she’s traveling the world in search of her next delicious discovery. |
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Alexis Jessup Alexis is another lifetime lover of shoes who swears by the timeless wisdom of F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right." When this sassy third-generation Napan joined our team, it was like Cinderella slipping on the glass slipper—we knew we’d found our girl. Alexis majored in Psychology with an emphasis on Social Psychology and now puts her training to use every day sustaining relationships with our winery partners. In her free time, she’s a devoted family girl and diehard sports fan who loves reading, running, Barre Method, sewing and baking. Oh yeah—and wine, too. |
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Heather Frank Heather Frank grew up in a family that lives by the motto: "No matter how much you have, there’s always someone you can help." After achieving a Masters in Nonprofit Administration, she spent three years teaching first grade and giving significant time and effort to philanthropic groups like Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, American Cancer Society, Fight for Life, and CASA. When her boys were born, she left teaching and focused full-bore on CASA, chairing both the 2012 and 2013 CASA Wine Women & Shoes fundraisers. Heather’s sales skills on those events totally blew us away—she rounded up more than $100,000 in sponsorship in 2013—so when she expressed an interest in joining our team, we jumped at the opportunity. Now she works her magic for nonprofits all across the nation. |
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Heather Pennella
Project Manager When this small-town California girl graduated from Cal State Northridge, she skipped the class ring and sprang for a pair of Manolos instead. Not surprisingly, Heather got involved with her local Bakersfield Wine Women & Shoes event early on, which is how she popped onto our radar. She brings management experience and event planning skills, plus a deep and abiding love of community service, marketing, and project management. During her time with Buck Owens Production Company, Heather was selected to attend Radio Advertising Bureau’s “Rising Through the Ranks” sales and management training, one of only 25 women in the country to receive the honor. She then went on to oversee event project management and community outreach for the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce before joining the WW&S team. Today, she pays it forward by sharing her skills and commitment with event teams from Atlanta to Wichita. |
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Krista Stafford
Project Management Coordinator Krista was born and raised in California’s Central Valley and spent most of her adult life in the scenic beauty of San Luis Obispo wine country. She majored in history at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and earned a Master’s in Business Administration with a focus on social awareness from Antioch University. Just before her last quarter at Cal Poly, Krista began working with RISE in San Luis Obispo as they expanded their events and operations, and in 2015, she managed the first annual Wine Women & Shoes event to benefit RISE. Krista fell in love with WW&S, the events, the wines, and our style, and pretty immediately convinced us she needed to join our Project Management team. Living in Georgia with her U.S. Army husband, she expands our offices to the East Coast. We can’t wait to see her light up the South with her incredible commitment to service! |
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Sue Furdek Before moving to wine country, Sue was a city girl—working more than 10 years at San Francisco’s esteemed advertising agency Hal Riney & Partners, and luxury publishing house Condé Nast. She was lured into the wine business during the first dot-com boom, thanks to an internet startup that later became wine.com. She has spent the last 15 years overseeing marketing and communications for some of this country’s most iconic Cabernet producers (Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Cardinale, Lokoya), leading public relations for Domaine Chandon and its renowned restaurant, and embracing the wine country lifestyle with her Australian winemaker husband. Though she lights up at adventure travel and has trekked all over the globe, Sue is a California girl at heart: embracing anything that’s outdoors (skiing, sailing, scuba diving, hiking, walking in the vineyard with her golden retriever), and slipping easily from Tori Birch flip flops into Dolce & Gabbana wedges. She’s a bubbles and beluga kind of gal who loves entertaining, and whose bocce team considers wine and food an essential part of the competition.
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Sharon Leighty Sharon’s broad background in marketing leadership helps our charity partners cultivate successful guest and donor relationships in virtually every industry. She’s worked with organizations ranging from local wineries to national healthcare corporations and international telecommunications giants serving clients like CBS, Time Warner, NBC, ABC, Disney, Warner Brothers, Spielberg, and Lucasfilm. She sits on executive and advisory boards for several of Sonoma County’s most respected healthcare and artistic venues, and travels annually to the Sundance Film Festival to choose films for public screenings in California’s wine country. Sharon served for a time as the Sonoma County Director for The Concierge Alliance of Napa Valley and Sonoma County, and for the past three years has been a committee member on one of the most successful Wine Women & Shoes events in the country. A former winegrower and producer in Alexander Valley, Sharon lives in Healdsburg with the never-ending challenge of triplet sons, now all in college. You won’t find stilettos in this country girl’s closet—you’re more likely to find her pulling on dressage riding boots, or sandals for the beach of some remote Pacific island..
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