Chief Philosopher/Proprietor Kate Griffith graduated with master’s degrees from the University of California, San Diego and Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She has over 40 years of communications, branding and marketing experience, much of it self-employed and specializing in Latin America. Her most visible campaign was on the passage of NAFTA, while working as a foreign agent for the Government of Mexico. In 2002, Kate relocated to work for the City of Lompoc and helped grow the infant wine industry. In Lompoc she met the love of her life, married Norm Yost on 01/01/10 and began working for Flying Goat Cellars. She now enjoys being a proprietor of a family business, branding and selling Norm’s handcrafted wines. Kate has also been a board director for CoastHills Credit Union, Santa Barbara Vintners, Lompoc Wine Alliance, Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association, Santa Barbara County Workforce Investment Board and Santa Barbara Conference & Visitors Bureau and Film Commission (Visit Santa Barbara), as well as a planning commissioner for the City of Lompoc. She enjoys the simple pleasures of life on the Central Coast with Norm and Cooper, their love sponge pooch.