UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education

Instructor Spotlight: Derek Gallanosa

Derek Gallanosa began his career in the brewing industry as a passionate homebrewer. “The fact that you can make your own beer at home blew my mind,” he said. “I took every opportunity to make a new batch of beer at home and after a couple of years, I knew I wanted to pursue brewing as a career.” Now he has more than nine years of professional brewing experience under his belt.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Nichola Hall

Nichola Hall is the newest instructor for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s Winemaking Certificate Program. She will be teaching the third course in the program, Quality Control and Analysis in Winemaking. Hall is currently a staff scientist for Scott Laboratories in Petaluma, Calif. and a co-winemaker for Mathew Bruno Wines in Rutherford, Calif.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Pat Henderson

UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s Winemaking Certificate Program has a new faculty member. Pat Henderson will be teaching three of the five courses in the program: Wine Production, Quality Control and Wine Stability. Henderson is the owner/proprietor of About Wine Consulting and has a degree in fermentation science from UC Davis.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Mike Ramsey

Michael Ramsey has made a career out of his passion for making wine and beer, despite growing up in a family that practiced temperance. He is the teaching laboratory manager for the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology and an instructor in UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s brewing and winemaking programs. He teaches the Brewing Microbiology Workshop, as well as the Brewing Chemistry courses.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Joe Williams

Joe Williams has been teaching for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education for three years. As the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Endowed Brewer at UC Davis, he provides practical brewing experiences for students, along with hands-on training and theoretical education. He also serves as a liaison to the brewing industry for UC Davis.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Bill Mead

A Pioneer in Web Design

Bill Mead, M.Ed., started building websites in the mid-1990s…way back when the internet was just beginning to dip its toe into everyday life. “I saw the web—and web design—as an amazing field with lots of opportunity for expression, even in the very early years,” he said.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: David Pardes

David Pardes, M.S., MBA, a tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco, brings 12 years of wine industry experience, and a bit of humor, to his decade’s-long career of teaching finance, accounting and taxation to vineyard and winery owners and executives.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Melissa Pellini

Melissa Pellini has been working in the wine industry since 2007. She studied viticulture and winemaking in northern Italy, where she became interested in the differences between conventional, organic and biodynamic viticulture. Pellini teaches Successful Home Winemaking.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Michael Ramsey

Michael Ramsey has made a career out of his passion for making wine and beer, despite growing up in a family that practiced temperance. He is the teaching laboratory manager for the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology and an instructor in UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s brewing and winemaking programs. He teaches the Wine Microbiology Workshop and Introduction to Wine Chemistry.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Chik Brenneman

Chik Brenneman is the winemaker for the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology and manager of the teaching winery and department wine cellar, where he procures wines and oversees the collections. With more than 25 years in the industry, Brenneman has been teaching Wine Filtration and Step-by-Step Winemaking for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education for 10 years.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Kaan Kurtural

As an associate Cooperative Extension specialist in viticulture with the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, Kaan Kurtural is well versed in helping grape growers solve real-world production issues. “It is very satisfying to see the results of hard work,” said Kurtural, who grew up on a raisin ranch and whose research focuses on understanding whole grapevine physiology in order to improve agricultural practices and adapt to ecological stresses. Kurtural is the instructor of Establishing and Managing a Small Vineyard.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Lucy Joseph

Lucy Joseph, M.S., is curator of the UC Davis Wine Microbe Collection and co-instructor of Wine Microbiology Workshop. With more than 35 years of experience as a professional microbiologist, she is an expert in spoilage issues, especially Brettanomyces.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Rebecca Bleibaum

Rebecca N. Bleibaum, instructor and co-founder of UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education’s Applied Sensory and Consumer Science Certificate Program, has been passionate about sensory science since discovering it as a student at UC Davis. Since that time, she has worked alongside pioneers in the field and around the world, focusing on turning academic concepts into applied sensory research.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Bios: Health Sciences

Sukhvir S. Brar, MBA, is a lead business consultant for Blue Shield of California and a statistical & predictive analytics consultant for UC Davis, UC San Francisco and Stanford.

Instructor Spotlights

Instructor Spotlight: Brian Paciotti

Brian Paciotti has always been interested in science and research. He is an instructor in the Healthcare Analytics Program, teaches because he believes that analytics done properly can lower costs, improve access and reduce medical errors.

Instructor Spotlights