Board of Directors

ACOA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

		Lynn Edens Lynn Edens is an alpaca breeder and owner of the alpaca yarn company Our Back 40. Formerly an investment banking executive, Lynn has served in leadership positions on several non-profit boards.
		Stacie Chavez Stacie Chavez along with her Husband Skip began breeding and showing Huacaya Alpacas in 2009. Their Farm, Sky Ridge Alpacas, is located in Tygh Valley, Oregon. Stacie started setting goals, 5 years ago focused on creating a National Alpaca Fiber Initiative. Stacie has extensive knowledge in sourcing, sorting and consolidating materials; that is taking raw materials into a central location and then manufacturing them into finished products. This experience was a perfect fit with creating the “distribution” chain that would be needed to collect, grade, bale and sale alpaca fiber. Click here for full bio…
		Sally Schmidt Sally & Tom Schmidt began Sabamba Alpaca Ranch and Bed & Breakfast in 2006. They spent the first year remodeling a 1890 farm house Located in De Pere, WI on 12.5 Acres. They have successfully grown an award-winning herd of over forty huacaya alpacas. Remodeling of the 100 year old barn has been ongoing since 2015. Sally served as a director on the board of the Alpaca Fiber Co-op of North America and was a member of the National Show Committee in 2013. She enjoys mentoring new and existing alpaca owners. Mentoring subjects include: industry trends, health care, handling skills, product and business development, fiber sorting and grading, and breeding consulting. Sabamba Alpaca Ranch is the Midwest Collection point for ACOA. In the winter of 2016 Sally successfully operated an alpaca retail store in Green Bay, WI. Sally and Tom host 4 major farm event annually. (2 open house and 2 educational) During the remainder of the year she runs a Farm B & B and Farm retail store. She is scheduled to complete the SUNY-SCC grading classes in April 2017. Sabamba Alpaca Ranch is the Midwest Collection point for ACOA.
		Debbie Harden-Vigus Debbie Harden-Vigus is owner of West Penn Alpacas. For 21 years she and her husband have grown their Alpaca business of Huacaya and Suri to over 300 head and have been an instrumental component on many levels to the Alpaca Industry. Along with running the farm, Debbie has managed successful Livestock auctions for over a decade and founded Silver Penn Sales in 2007. Debbie has recently added a herd of Registered purebred Hereford and Scottish Highland Cattle to day to day operations of the farm. Debbie currently holds the position of Secretary on the ACOA Board.
		Sara Donahoe Bio to come.
		Neil Padgett Bio to come.
		Rhonda Dreschner Bio to come.