The FRIENDS are pleased to welcome two members of our community to positions on our Board of Directors, Craig Smith and Brenda Perry. Both bring a large spectrum of knowledge and energy to the organization. As an introduction, we have included a short profile on Brenda, and next month we will introduce you to Craig.
Brenda has always been interested in the natural world and especially animals – she majored in Zoology at Cal and has some fun memories from those years. In a classroom one day, students gathered around a large sidewinder snake that was moving across a piece of canvas covered with sand. Professor Stebbins went on calmly chatting about the snake and its signature trails as it moved across the mat faster and faster – then he’d grab it at the last minute with a stick, and move it back to its starting point. “The snake looked at us, probably confused, then started up again,” says Brenda. “Nobody got bit.”
She also spent one summer taking classes at the Bodega Bay Marine Station. She got up at 5 in the morning to count clams on the mudflats with grid boxes, and she walked many miles through Tilden Park with some fabulous ornithologists.
Later, while living in Michigan, she got a degree in accounting and became a CPA, but she always hoped to come back to California. In 2002, she came to Napa — she worked initially for a local CPA firm, then started her own company focusing on tax and nonprofit accounting in 2006. Brenda also taught accounting and income tax for a few years part time at Napa College. A grad of Leadership Napa Valley Class XX, she has volunteered as a Board member with several groups including Napa Emergency Women’s Services (NEWS), the Napa Valley Education Foundation, and on the Finance Committee of the Napa Valley Community Foundation. Brenda also volunteered with the RCD and got to know Bob Zlomke there.
Brenda and her husband Steve will celebrate their 45th Anniversary this summer, and they have two sons and two grandsons; her sister Beverly Wilson also lives here in Napa. Now mostly retired, Brenda is looking forward to spending more time bird watching and helping with the important work of the Friends of the Napa River. She is especially interested in how we can improve and protect the water quality of the river and the wildlife that depend on it.
