Council Members
KAREN FIES, Chair
1/1/2021-12/31/2022
Karen Fies serves as the At-Large representative on the Council. Karen has over 35 years in the field of social services and retired in October 2020 as the Director for the Sonoma County Human Services Department. As director, Karen managed over 900 employees and an annual budget of approximately $325 million.
Karen originally moved to the Mark West area in 1986. She and her husband, Brian, a writer and cartoonist, lost their home in the Tubbs Fire in 2017. They have rebuilt and moved back to the neighborhood where they raised their now adult twin daughters.
In her retirement, Karen enjoys volunteering for the community, gardening, reading, and walking her dog, Riley. In addition to her work with the MWCAC, she is on the boards of the United Way of the Wine Country and the Family Justice Center of Sonoma County. Karen has been a volunteer for the Girl Scouts of Northern California for over 25 years, chairing the Gold Award Committee for the North Coast region for the last 15 years. She looks forward to more adventures when the pandemic ends.
BRAD SHERWOOD, Vice Chair
11/1/2016-12/31/2023
Brad Sherwood serves as the Mark West Union School District representative on the Council. Since 2018, Brad has served on the Board of Trustees for the District and currently serves as its president. Brad has served on the Council since 2018 and brings with him more than two decades of local government experience including public policy expertise on natural resource issues. Since 2006, he has dedicated his career to improving water resources and protecting endangered fish species at the Sonoma County Water Agency as the division manager of community and government affairs.
Brad and his family lost their home in the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Since then, he has devoted his heart and soul into helping the Mark West-Larkfield-Wikiup community rebuild as a founding District 4 Block Captain and co-founder of the Larkfield Resilience Fund. Brad has volunteered at local assistance centers for other wildfire incidents and coordinates recovery strategies with local and statewide organizations such as the Rebuild NorthBay Foundation.
In his spare time, Brad and his family enjoy the great outdoors by hiking, horse back riding, camping and boating at the many beautiful parks in our area including Lake Sonoma. Brad is the president of the Friends of Lake Sonoma and helps coordinate the annual Lake Sonoma Steelhead Festival. Brad is passionate about giving back to his community and believes that together, we can make our community better and more resilient. He truly believes we are #sonomastrong!
HEIDI WOUILD
1/1/2022-12/31/2023
Heidi Would serves as one of the two Mark West Area Chamber of Commerce representatives on the Council. Born and raised locally, Heidi grew up in Sebastopol and graduated from Analy High School. She has a long relationship with Sonoma County, which includes a family heritage dating back to 1938. She and her family moved to the Wikiup area in 2007.
Heidi joined Corcoran Global Living (formerly Terra Firma Global Partners) in 2018 after making a commitment to follow her life-long interest in real estate. She left a twenty-five-year career in graphic design, project management and business ownership. She loves working with people and has a kind and considerate approach and is intuitive and understanding.
After her parents lost their home in the Tubbs Fire in 2017, she dedicated herself to helping them rebuild and get more involved in the Mark West area community. Interested in housing and urban development, she became a member of the Mark West Chamber of Commerce to support local business and become more involved in community development. She is involved with several local organizations, most recently serving as a board member for Goodwill Industries of the Redwood Empire and an ambassador for the Council on Aging. She has been an active participant in the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women committee since 2005.
STEPHANIE BISORDI
1/1/2022-12/31/2023
Stephanie Bisordi serves on the Council as the representative from Fulton. Stephanie grew up in Healdsburg and graduated in 1991 from Healdsburg HS. She worked for the Mark West School District for over 20 years and is now retired. Her husband, Rob Bisordi (who grew up in Fulton) serves as a Battalion Chief with Sonoma County Fire. They married in 1993. Their children are the fifth generation to farm the certified sustainable Bisordi Ranch and Vineyards in Fulton. Eugenio Bisordi purchased the ranch in 1898 and his great, great grandchildren continue to farm the ranch with their grandfather and father today.
Stephanie and Rob received the Sonoma County Economic Development Board’s 20th Annual Spirit of Sonoma Award and the July 2020 PD North Bay Spirit Award for their “Lunches for Lifesavers” program that was a response to the increasing cases of the Coronavirus in our community. They started the program in March of 2020, providing meals and snacks three times per week to all the emergency room workers at Sutter Hospital of Santa Rosa. The food was either donated by local restaurants, or bought by local citizens and businesses, and then delivered to the hospital.
Bisordi Ranch & Vineyards is a member of the Mark West Chamber of Commerce and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau. For the past 9 years Stephanie and her entire family (Including grandpa Bisordi) have helped clean up the Fulton Cemetery at the annual Fulton Founders Day event—one of the many “helping hands” she and her family lend to their community and neighbors. In retirement she helps run their 20-acre ranch of vineyards, walnut and olive trees, goats and chickens. She is also a volunteer with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
WILLIE LAMBERSON
1/1/2021-12/31/2022
Willie Lamberson serves as one of two Mark West Area Chamber of Commerce representatives on the Council. Willie is a life long Sonoma County resident and second generation ceramic tile contractor. A graduate of Sonoma State University, he is also a veteran and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo West Africa.
He is a Tubbs fire survivor and Block Captain for the Wikiup area. In 2014 he began serving on the Sonoma County Planning Commission which led to his service on the Sonoma County Housing Authority Committee. In 2019 he received the “Spirit of Sonoma County” award for his volunteerism.
Currently, Willie is VP of Government Affairs for the Mark West Area Chamber of Commerce. Having spent his Junior High and High School years in Larkfield, he appreciates the opportunity to give back to the Community.
