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Get to Know Us

Napa County Landmarks works to document, protect, and actively promote Napa County’s historic, architectural, and cultural heritage through advocacy, education, and research.

Napa County Landmarks celebrates the places that give Napa Valley its unique sense of identity. Through our Community Landmarks programs and outreach, we recognize not only architecturally significant buildings but also the businesses, homes, and everyday places that hold meaning for the people who live here. From the 50 Flagship Structures and Legacy Business Program to the Old House Club, educational initiatives, and the Holiday Home Tour, these efforts invite the community to explore, celebrate, and care for the places that define this region.

Through rigorous research, digital documentation, and public-facing programs, we elevate Napa Valley’s historic buildings, neighborhoods, and landscapes as living resources. By making these places visible, understood, and valued, Napa County Landmarks helps position preservation as a driver of economic opportunity, smart planning, and resilient communities. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we gather and deploy resources to support informed stewardship and thoughtful change in the community.

Christine Madrid French, Executive Director

Christine Madrid French is an architectural historian, preservation leader, author, and nonprofit executive with more than 30 years of experience in historic preservation, cultural heritage, advocacy, and public history.

Her career includes service as an Architectural Historian with the National Park Service’s National Capital Region and Historian with the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) in Washington, D.C. She later served as Director of the Modernism + Recent Past Program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where she led a national initiative devoted to the recognition, preservation, and adaptive reuse of twentieth-century historic places. The program was supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts and included national advocacy, publications, grants, public programs, and partnerships.

Christine subsequently served as Director of Development & Marketing for the California Preservation Foundation and Director of Advocacy, Programs & Communications for San Francisco Heritage. She has also taught historic preservation at the University of Florida and directed major preservation initiatives, including the award-winning relocation and restoration of the historic Capen House in Winter Park, Florida. Over the course of her career, she has helped secure more than $2.5 million for historic preservation projects and organizations through grants, private philanthropy, institutional support, and partnerships.

Since 2025, Christine has served on the Board of Trustees of ICOMOS-USA, the United States national committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, part of the international network dedicated to the conservation and protection of cultural heritage.

She is the author of The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock, published by the University of Virginia Press, and has written or contributed to numerous books and publications on architecture, historic preservation, and cultural landscapes. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, including her 2022 article “How One Modernist Building in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest Changed Cinema Forever.” She has presented at more than 50 professional conferences, symposia, and public programs nationwide.

Christine holds a Master of Architectural History from the University of Virginia, a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Utah, and a Marketing Analytics Certificate from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

She has served as Executive Director of Napa County Landmarks since 2023, leading the organization’s preservation advocacy, historic property stewardship, research, educational programming, partnerships, and community initiatives throughout Napa County.

Our Board

The organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors that provides fiduciary oversight, strategic direction, and mission leadership. Board members serve three-year terms, with officers serving two-year terms, ensuring both continuity and fresh perspective. Working in partnership with staff, the Board advances policy, safeguards the organization’s financial health, and helps guide Napa County Landmarks’ role as a leading voice for preservation and place-based economic development in Napa Valley.

Interested in joining our Board of Directors or Advisory Board? Email us at info@napacountylandmarks.org and complete our online interest form here.

Vince Traverso, President
A former diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, Vin returned home to the Bay Area where he revived an 1866 wine company in Napa – Migliavacca Wine Co. –  and saved a 1922 neighborhood bar in Oakland – the Kingfish Pub & Café. In addition to enterprising preservation, he consults as a winemaker in his native Napa Valley and a vineyardist in select spots from the Sierra Foothills to the Sonoma Coast. Vin also hand crafts-stained glass windows at a studio in Saint Helena where he trained as an apprentice in adolescence and continues to ply the old-world trade today. A director on the board of Napa County Landmarks since 2021, Vin has an eye for up valley threatened treasures such as the Rutherford Depot and Aetna Springs Resort. When not bouncing between vineyards, cellars, and studios, Vin can be found paddling the Napa River, hiking the East Bay hills, sailing the San Francisco Bay, or simply picking up litter along Oakville Cross Road, the Valley’s “magnificent mile,” along which he fights blight and plants wildflowers.

Joanna Cucco, Vice President
Joanna has more than 16 years of experience with Folio Fine Wine Partners, a producer and importer of wines from family-owned wineries worldwide. Fluent in Spanish and conversant in Italian, Joanna has built a career in marketing and operations, focusing on branding, strategic planning, and educational storytelling. With expertise in creating compelling brand narratives and fostering connections between wineries and their audiences, she excels in crafting memorable stories that highlight unique characteristics of place and history. Her passion for design and concise storytelling is reflected in her ability to convey meaning and character, even in small spaces like wine labels. Joanna’s organizational skills and dedication to heritage storytelling make her a valuable advocate for Napa County Landmarks.

Shari Kamimori, Treasurer
Shari is a Design Professional with over 35 years of experience in the architectural design field. She is President and founder of 3D Virtual Design Technology, Inc. (3DVDT), a digital survey firm based in Napa and San Francisco, servicing the architectural, engineering, construction, and historic preservation industries with as-built surveys of the existing conditions using 3D Laser Scanning and Drone Imagery capture to create 3D Building Information Models (BIM) for preservation, renovation, and construction projects. She is actively involved in historic preservation and proud to be serving as a Board Director for Napa County Landmarks (NCL) since 2013.  She also serves as a member of the California Preservation Foundation (CPF) Education Committee and Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI) Technical Documentation Western Chapter Committee.

Danielle Cuddy, Secretary

Danielle Cuddy is a Jr. Project Manager and Designer: Architecture & Interiors at Napa Design Partners. Her work bridges sustainability, community, and the built environment. Born in Kangwon-do, South Korea, and raised in Napa Valley, she brings both a global perspective and a deep local connection to her work. Danielle holds a Doctor of Architecture (D.Arch) from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2025), the only NAAB-accredited doctoral program in the U.S., along with a master’s degree in interior architecture and design from the Academy of Art University and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a Certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies. She believes that meaningful architecture begins with people: understanding how social systems, culture, and environment shape the spaces we live in. Her work blends research, design strategy, and advocacy, aiming to improve how buildings respond to both human and environmental needs with a focus on collaborating on projects and initiatives that advance sustainability, social equity, and cross-cultural design thinking.

Kara Brunzell
Kara is the owner and principal of Brunzell Historical, an historic preservation and cultural resource management consulting firm. She has practiced in the fields of history and architectural history, cultural resource management, and historic preservation since 2007. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History from UCLA, and a master’s degree in Public History from California State University, Sacramento. Kara grew up in Ontario, California before attending UCLA, and moved to Napa County in 1996. With her husband Phil Barber (a journalist), she raised four daughters, who attended public schools in Napa. Kara and Phil live in a c1910 workingman’s cottage in Napa’s Alphabet Streets neighborhood.

Martha Ann Campbell
Martha has cultivated a deep expertise in building performance, climate policy, and finance. She serves as the Chief Program Officer at Michigan Saves, where she leads innovative financing programs that support clean energy, healthy buildings, and resilient communities. Her career experiences include everything from doing climate policy in the Governor’s Office for the State of Michigan, to working in the financial services sector for Goldman Sachs, to more than a decade at the RMI, where she helped launch national initiatives focused on improving and reinvesting in existing buildings. Martha is especially interested in how historic places can be preserved through advanced technologies, quality materials, and thoughtful reinvestment that keeps them economically active. As a board member, she brings strategic insight in finance, real estate development, and policy and is eager to help position Napa Valley’s historic resources as engines of long-term cultural and economic vitality.

Jonathan Franz
Jonathan is General Counsel for Givebutter, a fundraising software platform for non-profits. Before transitioning to Silicon Valley, he was senior attorney for a top 10 architecture firm (NBBJ) and spent nearly seven years in Hollywood representing a global entertainment company. Jonathan’s volunteer work with the Los Angeles Conservancy sparked his interest in historic preservation. When he’s not practicing law, he’s writing fiction and visiting Frank Lloyd Wright sites. Jonathan lives in Old Town Napa in a 1932 Tudor Revival with his wife, Mary, two daughters, Audrey, and Margot, and two golden retrievers, Keller and Woodford.

Michelle P. Martinez
Michelle brings extensive experience in people leadership, organizational strategy, and relationship management to the Board of Directors. A human resources leader with more than two decades of experience in talent acquisition, she has led large, high-performing teams, overseen complex operations, and partnered closely with senior executives to align talent strategy with organizational goals. Her expertise includes workforce planning, process improvement, compliance, and the cultivation of strong internal cultures within dynamic, fast-paced environments. Michelle is deeply passionate about preserving what makes Napa Valley distinctive and believes historic preservation is essential to safeguarding the county’s identity, stories, and sense of place. As a board member, she brings a collaborative leadership style, strong organizational acumen, and a people-centered perspective to advancing the mission of the organization.

Terry Wunderlich
Terry has been a Realtor in Napa County for more than 35 years and has been recognized as a leader at the Local, State and National level, and was awarded the most prestigious honor from the California Association of Realtors in 2019 as the “California Distinguished Realtor Recipient.”  Her knowledge of community history influences her awareness of heritage properties and her interest in preserving them.  Terry enjoys matching historic homes with clients who have an interest in restoration.  Her work with NCL makes her a valuable resource and she takes pride in being a Board Member since 2012.