Lily Schneider is a Bay Area native with deep roots in California agriculture, and grew up hearing stories from her grandparents’ upbringings on cattle and chicken ranches in rural Sonoma County. While farming skipped her parents generation, Lily found herself working on farms in college while studying Sustainable Agriculture at UC Santa Cruz, and dreamed of one day starting her own operation.

In 2009, Lily launched her own business, Shooting Star Organic Farm, on leased ground in Fairfield, California. Starting a farm in the middle of the great recession with no formal business training proved to be a crash course in small business management, and soon she learned the value of accessing credit and cash flow management, building a marketing plan, and setting long-term goals for the business. For the next 10 years, she directed the business administration, marketing, and production aspects of her 15-acre diversified vegetable farm, which steadily grew to a 300-member CSA program and weekly farmers markets.

Out of her farming career grew a desire to work with other farmers on the business side of their operations, motivating her to complete an Accounting Certificate from UC Davis. While transitioning out of farming, she worked for three years as an independent business consultant, primarily supporting first generation farmers to improve the profitability and economic sustainability of their operations through strategic planning and implementation of recordkeeping systems. She has a MS in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Lily is excited to leverage her agricultural and business backgrounds to advise farmers and ranchers in the region.