Our Team

Brooke Hazen

Farmer & Founder

Brooke Hazen always dreamed of growing and selling farm to table foods under his own brand. A Southern California native, Brooke grew up loving the ocean and the natural world. His affinity for the land, healthy living, and natural foods eventually led him to move north in order to study Agriculture at Humboldt State and Prescott College.

Brooke’s vision was to grow nutritious, organic foods and to sell them to his community in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the early days, he grew row crops and sold them at Farmers Markets. In 2000, Brooke’s dream to own land became a reality when he purchased 88 acres of pastureland in bucolic Sebastopol for olives, apples, and citrus and it became Gold Ridge Organic Farms. When he's not farming, Brooke is passionate about sharing his philosophies on holistic health and working collaboratively with renowned local artists to create large-scale, interactive art pieces that enhance the immersive experience of visitors to the farm.

Guillermo Rojas

Master Olive Miller/Mill Supervisor

Guillermo is the Master Miller, and has been trained by Rapanelli, Pablo Cabanassas, and Pablo Voitzuk in the latest techniques for creating the highest quality olive oil. Hailing from Michoacan, Mexico he now calls Sonoma County home. He has worked for Gold Ridge Organic Farms since 2015. For the 15 years prior, he worked in the wine industry, expertly tending grape vines.

Guillermo is an accomplished mechanic who runs all aspects of the press and keeps our farm machinery in optimal working order.

In his free time, he enjoys tinkering with cars and spending time with his family. He is also an accomplished musician, and plays guitar, electric bass, and sings in a Mariachi band.

Jose "Pepe" Chavez

Quality Assurance Manager

Jose “Pepe” Chavez has been working with olives since the mid 1990s. After planting olive orchards for some of Sonoma County’s most storied producers, he transitioned to pressing olive oil beginning in 1997. In 2011, after many years as an Apprentice and Journeyman under the tutelage of Dr. Maurizio Castelli and Dr. Jeffrey Creque, Pepe earned the title of Master Miller at McEvoy Ranch. There he managed the milling team and oversaw olive pressing operations to produce olive oil for the estate, as well as custom milling and community milling operations. 

In 2019, Pepe joined the team at Gold Ridge Organic Farms, bringing his decades of experience and expertise producing award-winning olive oil for top favorite Bay Area brands. As Quality Assurance Manager, he now oversees all documentation to maintain compliance and Organic certifications for the olive press at Gold Ridge Organic Farms, upholding the integrity of our milling operation and ensuring good manufacturing practices. 

Pepe is very passionate about what he does and enjoys continuing to learn as much as he can. In his spare time, he enjoys coaching his son’s soccer league.

Erik Orozco

Agricultural Manager

Erik Orozco has honed his expertise in farm management, working closely alongside Founder-Farmer Brooke Hazen for the past decade. During his tenure at Gold Ridge Organic Farms, he has mastered knowledge in the classification of fruit as well as fruit tree care, including an expertise in proper techniques for pruning, grafting, and harvesting, as well as maintaining the farm’s programs for proper pest management, weed suppression, fertilizing, and spraying under the guidelines that help us maintain our organic certifications.

Erik takes great pride in leading his team and values fostering their professional development, as well as his own. Most recently, Erik completed a Grower Training Course and Certification with the California Department of Food and Agriculture Produce Safety Alliance. What he likes most about his role at Gold Ridge Organic Farms is the ability to spend the majority of his day working outside in the elements.  Being outside is where he feels the most comfortable and feels his happiest. In his free time, Erik enjoys hiking in Mount Tamalpais State Park and relaxing by the ever-flowing waterfalls.

Francisco "Pancho" Garcia

Field Quality Assurance Specialist

For over two decades, Francisco Garcia, affectionately known as “Pancho”, has been a cornerstone at Gold Ridge Organic Farms. His deep admiration for agriculture is what led him to the farm. Through his time working closely with every tree in the orchard, he has honed an in-depth knowledge of the wide array of heirloom apple, pear, and olive cultivars grown here at the farm and can expertly identify each distinct variety. This is no simple task, with such an abundance of fruit and a multitude of varieties which can appear indistinguishable from one another to the uninitiated. He truly has an expert eye for pruning and is always willing to lend a hand wherever needed, especially during Harvest, our busiest time of year, where he recruits many of our seasonal employees. When Pancho is not at the farm, he enjoys slow mornings at home with his family while watching an episode of Tom & Jerry.

Naomi Ansbergs

Marketing & DTC Sales Manager

Naomi grew up in coastal New England where she spent her childhood exploring the woods behind her family home, and - sometimes reluctantly - tending the vegetables and herbs in the backyard garden. Most of all, she enjoyed transforming the harvest bounty in their tiny kitchen into something delicious, appreciating that even the simplest of ingredients, when carefully cultivated and lovingly prepared, possess the finest flavors.

After completing her studies at Smith College, she wandered west by way of Salt Lake City, guiding youth through the rugged high-desert backcountry, where some of her most treasured experiences involved cooking dinner and sharing stories over the campfire.

A desire to share connection to landscape through food, writing, visual storytelling, and direct experience has informed her career. She joined the Gold Ridge Organic Farms team in 2021 and manages digital marketing, direct sales, and creative project development.

In her spare time, you'll find her experimenting with chocolate or lemon-based dessert recipes, hiking with her dog Stevie the Cardigan, or meandering dusty desert backroads whenever the opportunity presents.

Alli Keyser-Marti, ACS CCP® & CCSE®

Administrative Manager

With a culinary career beginning in her teenage years in West Sonoma County, Alli has worked for some of the finest restaurants and cheese shops in the region. She is an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional®, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin Cheese State Scholar, California Artisan Cheese Guild Board Member, recently completed her Cheese Sensory Evaluator Certification, and is currently working on an apprenticeship with Applied Sensory for Olive Oil analysis. She was selected as a 2024 ACS Official Conference Cheese Monger and has volunteered at the World Cheese Awards in Viseu, Portugal and ACS Judging & Competition in Minnesota.

Alli has pursued her passion for cheese and food from her backyard in California to small farms all over France, rural Ohio, roadside stands in Sardinia, ferries in Croatia and beyond. She joined Gold Ridge Organic Farms in 2022 to further broaden her knowledge of specialty food through the world of olive oil. In addition to wrangling all things admin, she helps with farm tours, olive oil tastings, and hosts cheese board workshops. In her free time, you can find her walking around Sebastopol with her dog, Porter.

Fatima Valdoz

Payroll & Human Resources Administrator

Before arriving at Gold Ridge Organic Farms in 2023, Fatima worked in the mental health sector as well as in public relations, though she is no stranger to the agricultural field. Fatima spent many summers at her grandfather’s farm where she tended to the chickens and cows that roamed the green, lush property. From a young age, she learned the importance of self-sufficiency and one day hopes to own a homestead where she too can raise livestock.

Fatima has held numerous roles throughout her life but her favorite one of all is being a mother. Fatima and her husband Ralph, along with their two children, are currently on the hunt for the best chocolate chip cookie in Sonoma County.

Stephanie Klassen

Farm Shop Lead & Principal Educator

Stephanie Klassen grew up on the East Coast, part of a family of avid cooks and restaurant enthusiasts. After graduating from Princeton University, she moved to San Francisco and quickly found her place in the Bay Area food scene, writing about food and restaurants for numerous newspapers and magazines, becoming the restaurant critic for San Francisco Magazine, and working in the cookbook department at Chronicle Books. Later, she moved toSanta Cruz to do an intensive apprenticeship in organic farming at UCSC’s Center for Agroecology, earning a certificate in Ecological Horticulture.

Stephanie joined Gold Ridge in 2023 and now runs the Farm Shop and Tasting Room, where she hosts olive oil tastings, leads orchard tours, and stocks the shop with wonderful items that complement the farm’s olive oil and apple products. Her favorite part of the job? Teaching cooking classes, demonstrating recipes and educating guests about the history, science, and culinary uses of the farm’s apples, pears, citrus, and olives.

Danielle Culbertson

Director of Events

After twenty years of living and working across three continents since leaving her native Australia, Danielle has found her home in Sebastopol with her family (and chickens)—and is finally pursuing her dream of working with food and local producers. Her passion for cooking was sparked by watching her mother prepare family recipes passed down through generations. She loves creating meals for others and believes the dinner table is the best place to bring people together.

Danielle is channeling the organizational expertise she developed as an international television news producer into creating memorable events and experiences at Gold Ridge Organic Farms, where she has served as Director of Events since 2025. Nothing makes her happier than watching visitors discover and enjoy the farm while learning about our produce and farming practices at this little slice of heaven nestled on a Sonoma County hilltop.

Merrilee Olson

Production Manager

Merrilee Olson is a chef, entrepreneur, and former small business owner. Her preserves and artisan food products have garnered multiple Good Food Awards, the highest honor in the world of gourmet and specialty foods. She founded Preserve Farm Kitchens in 2010 as a small-scale conscious co-packer that enabled small, local farms to develop a steady stream of income and mitigate the effects of climate uncertainty by utilizing fruits and vegetables that might otherwise go to waste. Thus, farmers could increase their earned income by creating value-added products, sold at a higher return and available well beyond the short growing season. Prior to founding Preserve Farm Kitchens, Merrilee was employed at Bon Appétit Management Company. It was during her 13 years wearing many hats, that she was inspired to work towards more sustainable food systems.

She has worked with some of the Bay Area’s most celebrated small-scale farmers and producers to create many of the products you know and love today, found at boutique grocers within the region and beyond. Merrilee connected with the Gold Ridge Organic Farms team as a consultant in 2021, by way of Sonoma County’s tightly knit local network of small makers, farmers, and chefs. She worked closely with our team to develop our best-selling Apple Cider Syrup and Apple Cider Balsamic Vinegar, offering a new way to utilize the farm’s #2 apples. In the summer of 2024 after a stint living abroad, she joined the Gold Ridge Organic Farms team full time as Production & Wholesale Manager. Merrilee brings her entrepreneurial spirit and decades of experience as a seasoned culinary professional, and continues to create innovative, delicious products with the fruits grown right here on our organic farm.