Sonoma County Winegrowers head Karissa Kruse picked for prestigious fellowship

Karissa Kruse, president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, has been selected as a Marshall Memorial Fellow and will travel to Europe next fall as part of a program that sends emerging U.S. leaders to Europe for a month to better understand transatlantic relations.

Kruse was one of 34 U.S. residents picked for the program, sponsored by the German Marshall Fund, and is the first Sonoma County resident to receive the award.

She will go through six months of preparation to learn more about U.S.-European relations before traveling to Europe from Sept. 30 to Oct. 25.

As head of the trade group that represents more than 1,800 grape growers in Sonoma County, Kruse has led an effort to make the county an 100 percent sustainable wine region before the end of the decade.

She earned an undergraduate degree in economics and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania. Before taking the helm of the winegrowers in 2013, Kruse worked for such companies as General Mills, Universal Studios, Mattel and Dairy Management. She is a partner in a small winery, Argot Wines, with a 5-acre vineyard on Sonoma Mountain.

Kruse said during her fellowship she will focus on best practices in sustainable farming, agri-tourism and wine marketing.