Board of Directors & Staff

Napa County Landmarks Board of Directors 2023

The Board of Directors strives to educate our community of the vital historical, architectural and cultural heritage of the area in all aspects; extends recognition of the fine buildings and their neighborhood design representing the many periods of architecture for the enduring character of this area, promotes research and collects information of educational significance pertaining to historical, architecturally and culturally significant sites, obtains funds specified under the IRS Code Section 501(c)(3) to achieve these goals.

Subcommittees

Executive Committee: consists of the Board President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary.

Advisory Committee: consists of past Board Directors, and professionals interested in supporting projects Napa County Landmarks (NCL) is involved with.

Committees

Governance

This committee ensures bylaws compliance, recruits and vets Director candidates, evaluates Board performance and evaluates President’s performance. It also hires and evaluates staff and maintains and revises handbook as necessary.

Finance and Investment

This committee monitors NCL’s fiscal health, reviews financial requests, prepares and monitors the annual budget. It also oversees investment and planned giving programs, real property asset rental contracts and maintenance as well as managing budgets and revenue from all events.

Preservation and Advocacy (P & A)

P & A is the advocacy arm of the organization as it monitors facade easements, advocates for legislation that impacts preservation as well as identifies and monitors endangered historic properties. This committee also is a liaison to City and County governments and the larger world of preservation (e.g. The National Trust, the California Preservation Foundation). The committee seeks to increase understanding of the importance of Historic Preservation to the health of Napa County.

Community Engagement

This committee plans, produces and supervises events and recruits, trains and supervises event volunteers. It provides preservation education for community and elected and appointed officials. This committee oversees the Award of Merit program and promotes corresponding organization membership and alliances.

If any of these functions interest you please email NCL at:
info@napacountylandmarks.org
or call 707-255-1836 for more information.

2023 NCL Board of Directors

Terry Wunderlich, President

Terry Wunderlich has been a Realtor in Napa County for more than 35 years. 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.

Bill Tuikka, AICP, Vice President

Bill Tuikka was born in Massachusetts and has lived in California since 1980, and has lived in Napa since 1989. Bill has been involved in the preservation field since the 1970’s when he bought and restored an 1850’s house in central Massachusetts. Upon moving to California, he studied graduate-level Urban Planning at San Jose State University, specializing in historic preservation and urban design. He is a retired planner for the City of Vallejo and served as Vallejo’s Certified Local Government coordinator and was staff to Vallejo’s Architectural Heritage and Landmarks Commission. Bill has extensive knowledge in applying the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and has supervised many rehabilitation projects during his planning career.

Treasurer – Open position

John Sensenbaugh, Secretary

John Sensenbaugh is a retired Napa business owner who promotes interest in preservation. John is not new to NCL as he previously served on the Board from 2008 to 2013 and as it’s Treasurer from 2009 to 2013. He also served on the Cultural Heritage Commission for 6 years.

John has submitted articles for NCL’s quarterly newsletter and website. His special interest is Napa County’s Ten Threatened Treasures list which he coordinated for 2019 and continues today. John’s experience and enthusiasm is a real asset to Napa County Landmarks!

Ernie Schlobohm, Interim Executive Director

Ernie Schlobohm has been a permanent resident of Napa since 2006. A San Francisco native, he was fortunate to be raised in a Edwardian style home from which his appreciation for architectural and historical preservation is rooted. Now a retired entrepreneur, Ernie started and developed several businesses in export management, computer, retail, and restaurant industries; and was an independent business development consultant. He and his wife reside in an historic home in the “Old Town” district. Their house was featured on the 2006 annual “Holiday Candlelight Tour” and later received the Napa County Landmarks (NCL) “Award of Merit”. He represented the Napa Abajo /Fuller Park area as a tour leader presenting concerns and recommendations within the Downtown Specific Plan (DSP) Transition zone to the DSP Steering Committee participants.

Kara Brunzell

Kara Brunzell 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 sports 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.

Dan Cutright

Dan Cutright is a life long Napan who has been a Financial Services professional for over 40 years. He has had an affinity for our local historic architecture most of his life, which goes back to the razing of the original John L. Shearer school, which he lived near and attended. His experience of seeing this local architectural treasure destroyed is the primary motivation for his years long interest in preservation. He currently resides in an historic home near downtown Napa with his wife, Susan, and his Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, Henley.

Jonathan Franz

Jonathan Franz is Head of Legal for Crunchbase. 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.

Austene Hall

Austene Hall is focused on preservation advocacy, fundraising, education and organizing activities. Her background is extensive in the world of preservation. She was a Commissioner on Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for 8 years. Earlier she served as Board Member and Board President on Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). Austene has also contributed and mentored efforts to apply for landmark designations for residential and business buildings. From 2014-2016 she served on the Berkeley Design Review Committee for new construction in the city’s permit process. Her emphasis was to seek an architectural fit of new structures into an existing historic neighborhood. Over the years she has established relationships and partnerships with City personnel, planners, architects, preservationists and neighborhood advocates. She and her husband moved from Berkeley to Napa in 2017.

Shari Kamimori

Shari Kamimori is a Design Professional with over 25 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 Sonoma and San Francisco, specializing in 3D Laser Scanning and 3D Building Information Modeling or Scan to BIM, providing as-built surveys for the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. She holds a B.S. degree in Interior Architecture and has worked for and partnered with architectural and engineering firms where she developed her skills in 3D digital design in the United States and Germany. She is actively involved in historic preservation and proud to be serving as a Board Director for Napa County Landmarks (NCL). She also serves as a member of the California Preservation Foundation Education Committee.

Vince Traverso

A former diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, Vincent Traverso returned home to the Bay Area where he has revived one of Napa’s oldest wineries – Migliavacca Wine Company – and saved one of Oakland’s oldest bars – the Kingfish Pub & Café. In addition to enterprising historic preservation, he works as a consulting winemaker, stained glass artist, and freelance writer, with service on Board of Directors of the Treasure Island Museum and the Preservation & Advocacy Committee of Napa County Landmarks.

When not bouncing between vineyards, cellars, and studios, Vince 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.

Karen Wesson

Karen Wesson is a native Californian, having lived most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her BA degree in Art with an interest in design. Her passion is preserving and restoring historic homes. By applying her hands-on experience and design knowledge she has developed a wide range of skill sets and expertise in the preservation of historic homes. She enjoys sharing this information with others, whether it is researching the historical background of structures and people, documenting historical information, or by sharing her how-to knowledge. She also dedicates time to the Napa community as a Commissioner on the Cultural Heritage Commission. In 2019, she won the California Preservation Foundation Award for Preservation of two homes, one an 1856 Gothic Revival Home and the other a 1907 shingled cottage in Napa.

Rebecca Yerger

This proactive NCL lifetime member has dedicated her life’s work to protecting, preserving and promoting the historic fabric and cultural foundation of her hometown and county of Napa . . . and beyond. Post graduate, her career began with actual, hands-on, rehabilitation and restoration professional projects to evolve into an historic preservation, architectural history and cultural resources management private practice as well as becoming a noted professional historian. In addition to utilizing traditional historic preservation methods and means, such as official research, documentation and project analysis, Rebecca has expanded her outreach to include teaching and public presentation plus both print and electronic platforms – namely writing her Napa Valley Register local history column “Memory Lane,” feature articles and a monthly KVON radio show. She has also contributed to national and international documentaries about Napa County filmed by NHK (Japan), NATIVA (Brazil) and PBS as well as the California State funded “Wild California” and Travel Channel’s “Haunted Hotels.” Rebecca said, “I have yet to encounter an historically insignificant person, place or thing.” She added, “It has been, and continues to be, my privilege to share their stories with the community-at-large while simultaneously honoring and preserving their historical importance.”

Staff

Annie Schaefer, Executive Assistant

Annie Schaefer is the executive assistant for Napa County Landmarks since 2018. She is a Napa native and has a strong interest in local Napa County history which brings added enthusiasm to this position.