Joy Sterling represents the second generation at Iron Horse Vineyards, in Sebastopol, CA. She is the CEO of the winery and a member of the California State Food & Agriculture Board, appointed by the Governor.

Joy attended Yale University (’75) where she studied history and economics. She went into journalism and at 29 was Deputy Bureau Chief for ABC Network News in Los Angeles.

In 1985, Joy left ABC's hierarchy to join her family's business and made news headlines for the winery with her first achievement at Iron Horse: In November 1985, the White House selected Iron Horse Sparkling Wine for the President's toast to peace at the first summit meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva. Iron Horse has now been served by six consecutive presidential administrations.

Joy quietly took up the reins as CEO at the start of 2006 after 20 years presenting the wines across the country. She launched a partnership with National Geographic to create a special, limited edition, vintage Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine called Ocean Reserve. Iron Horse gives $4 a bottle to help establish marine protected areas and support sustainable fishing practices around the globe.

She is the author of A Cultivated Life, published by Random House and served for ten years as a Trustee of the Leakey Foundation.

She has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, run white water rapids on the Bio – Bio River in Chile and the upper reaches of the Yank Sing River in China, trekked in Tibet and Bhutan, traveled to Timbuktu and trekked to see the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda’s Impenetrable Forest.

Her personal passion project is expanding rural broadband to achieve Internet equality in her capacity as chair of the California Democratic Party Rural Caucus, co-chair of the CDP Legislation Committee, as a member of the California Broadband Council Advisory Task Force and serving on the Board of Expert Advisors for the California Emerging Technology Fund.

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