Executive Director

Donniella coordinates the annual Vintage Ohio Wine Festival and the License to Steal wine marketing conference. She is past chair of the WineAmerica State Advisory Committee and is active in Winegrape Growers of America, the Ohio Travel Association and serves on several other state and national committees. She is a member of the Ohio Agriculture and Ohio Wines Halls of Fame, a Rotary Harris Fellow, a member of the Knights of the Vine and the recipient of the Monteith Wine Award.

In 2020, she was named an industry influential by Wine Business Magazine and in 2021 was awarded the Rich Smith Award of Excellence in American Wine. In 2022 the Wine Industry Network named her one of the industry’s ten most inspiring people. She has contributed to several national wine publications, writes weekly wine columns for a dozen Ohio print and online publications, authors a marketing e-letter, Tuesday Tidbits, and speaks at numerous wine and tourism conferences. She teaches occasional wine related courses at Kent State Ashtabula, is a graduate of Allegheny College with a BA in History and taught in Ohio public schools before retiring to raise a family and take the Ohio wines position.

She and her husband have 3 adult children with wonderful families, own a family entertainment center in Geneva on the Lake and live adjacent to the Grand River Valley AVA.