Steve is owner and operator of both Cygnus Creative, Inc., a marketing & design firm, and Wicked Mead, Inc., a honey-based beverage production and sales operation. With Cygnus, he has specialized in graphic design, marketing/advertising, IT, and much more for businesses in the Health Care, Entertainment, Biotech, Sports, and Financial industries since 1997. As his newest endeavor, Wicked Mead is set to launch in Mariposa in 2023.

From 2012 to 2020, Steve was also the owner/manager of Epic Alpacas, where he was dedicated to breeding superior alpacas, fleece, and fleece products. Steve built the largest and most successful alpaca ranch in California with 325 alpacas, eventually expanding by opening a retail store in downtown Mariposa and developing a thriving agri-tourism business with ranch tours, an immersive animal experience, and vacation rental.

During his time in the alpaca industry, he co-founded the Alpaca Coalition of America, where he worked with some of the top experts in the business to help ensure alpaca growers not only have a future, but a prosperous one. Additionally, he served multiple years on the Board of Directors for both the California alpaca organization and the national alpaca owners association.

He brings a wide range of experience to the board and hopes to continue helping other County businesses to thrive and local business owners to realize success in our community.

Bob comes from Visalia originally, he worked for Premier Valley Bank in Mariposa for 5 years, and is now the Branch Manager for Merco Credit Union. A very civic minded person, Bob has volunteered for the Chamber of Commerce for 4 years before joining the board of directors.

Deanna Stickles is life long resident of Mariposa. Her kids are 6th generation Mariposa, and she hopes they grow up with a deep appreciation for this community just as she did. Deanna became the proprietor of Mae It Be Home in 2020. A home goods shop located in the heart of downtown. After spending years commuting down to the valley for work the time came when she knew she had to do something different to keep herself local, allowing more time for involvement in the town which has done so much for her over the years.

I met my husband Paul while working in Yosemite in their early 20’s and have been coming back to the area ever since. As a 7th generation Californian, born and raised in Modesto I have grown up loving the history of our great state. We camped every summer in different locations with my family exploring and learning about our diverse geography but the Sierra was always my favorite. After moving to Yosemite and spending 2 years working as a lifeguard at the Curry pool and meeting people from all over the world who came to work in Yosemite, I decided to travel outside California. I worked in Zion Utah, all over Alaska, Oregon and then back to California a few years later when I studied different forms of art. The mountains kept calling and I worked as a snowboard instructor on the weekends and blew glass during the week. For as much fun as I was having, I decided to take all my art lessons to LA and work in the art departments in the film industry. While living and working in LA I reconnected with Paul who had a clothing company with his brother called Mattblack. We started collaborating on designs together and dating. Since I had been working on photoshoots in the art department sewing and styling, fashion design was always something I had interest in and did for myself. The more involved I became with Matteblack the more I wanted to know how to make my own patterns so I enrolled in school at FIDM and received my bachelor degree in fashion design emphasizing in knitwear. I worked in the fashion industry while Paul was learning skydiving and found myself working on skydive gear and jumpsuits for sport jumpers. We both became uninterested in living in the city so we moved to SLO then Ohio so Paul could work as a tandem instructor. I continued designing for myself and started Alpaca coterie designing scarves and accessories while packing parachutes and jumping out of airplanes. I took a course and received my rigging license working on military contracts and doing repacks for skydivers. As one thing leads to another Paul and I have followed similar paths and goals. After 7 years working in the sport we decided to follow a long dream of opening Skydive Yosemite in 2018. My job is to do all the rigging for our Drop Zone and I am also in charge of our merchandising. I continue to make my Alpaca Coterie designs on the side and I am busy raising our two kids. Getting to live and work in a small community outside our favorite place, being Yosemite is a dream for us both. I hope to contribute to our unique and growing community.

She was born and raised in our beautiful town of Mariposa. Before starting
her new business, Mariposa Fry Bread Company in 2021- she
worked in dentistry for 18 years as a Registered Dental Assistant as
well as Front office Manager. She loves working with people and helping
them. Through the years she has been involved in many volunteer
committees through out our community such as PTA, FFA, Pow Wow, Bears
youth football. Served on the American Indian Council Board as Secretary
and is a proud member of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation. She's also
currently an active member of the Mariposa Lions club.
On her down time she loves spending it with her family and friends at the
River or hiking in Yosemite and around town.
She really enjoys serving her community and making it a beautiful place for
our future generations.

Nichole "Nikki" McGrady
Mariposa Homes & Land Co.
Nikki moved her family from the bay area to Mariposa & never looked back! She is a local Realtor & co-owner of McGrady & Sons Heating & Cooling Inc. She loves her community and strives to help it grow, while maintaining its small town charm. A true professional, Nikki provides exceptional value through her proactive approach, strong work ethic, and caring heart. You can count on her to keep things simple & straightforward with a positive attitude & friendly smile. When she’s not ‘working, she enjoys every moment exploring & working on projects around her homestead with her loving husband & four amazing boys.

2023 Affiliations -

Director of Mariposa Chamber of Commerce

Director of Mariposa Board of Realtors

Member of California Association of Realtors

Member of National Association of Realtors

Trans Valley Youth Football Little League Player Safety Coach for the Mariposa Bears

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Miles is a liaison for the Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce from the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors.

Gabe is an expert in cloud services and IT service development, currently working for UC San Diego I.T. as the Cloud Product Manager, and was previously the I.T. Campus Software Manager at UC Merced. Locally, he works for his wife’s business - Amber Edwards Photography – and occasionally pretends to be a handyman at The Alley and Brick Wall Boutique. Gabe sits on several corporate and non-profit advisory boards including the Sierra Foothill Charter School, and has been involved in the development of numerous projects that have revolutionized services where deployed. He has a passion for volunteering and is driven to make the world a better place. He focuses on non-profits and education, bringing his knowledge in process improvement, project management, and business planning to enable creative solutions. When he isn’t spending time with his wife and son, he can usually be found working on home improvement projects with friends, or supporting local businesses with his patronage.

Sarah Radanovich Philips was born and raised in Mariposa and is a part of a long lineage of a Mariposa County family. Sarah is also raising her family in Mariposa and is currently Center Manager for Mother Lode Job Training Agency and serving as Secretary on the Board of Directors for Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce. Sarah has a passion for helping others in the community and for taking care of the family she loves dearly.

Edwin brings a diverse personal and professional history to the Board.  A loving husband and father of two, Edwin is a lifelong "Highway 49er", having been born and raised in San Andreas and living in Mariposa over the last 10 years.  He and his wife, Alexandra Schneider, own Pure Training Studio in Mariposa.  Edwin is currently a middle school Math and Science teacher in addition to being a small business owner.
Edwin's professional background includes being a college football coach, outside sales manager for a brewery, construction laborer, restaurant manager, and the aforementioned Math and Science teacher at both the high school and middle school levels.

His professional associations include:
American Football Coaches Association - Member
Cal Aggie Alumni Association - Member
Chowchilla Elementary Teacher's Association - Negotiations Chair, Treasurer, Site Rep

Edwin has a deep desire to help society at large, predominantly by strengthening our local community.  He believes that helping Mariposa to have a thriving business community will, in turn, help the rest of our mountain community thrive.  This will happen through cultural events, support of non-profits, and fellowship building through shared experience.

Dave is the President/CEO of MERCO Credit Union. Dave joined MERCO Credit Union in 1999 as CFO and has been CEO since 2018.  Dave has been married to Pearl for 30 years.  They met while training to be CPAs at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Silicon Valley. They left the big city to raise a family. They have two daughters. Katherine is in the teacher credential program at Sonoma State and Laura is studying computer science at UCLA.
MERCO Credit Union has been serving the community of Mariposa, Merced and nearby communities since 1954.  MERCO Credit Union is a non-profit, member-owned, Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Our mission is to help all members of the community enter the economic mainstream by providing affordable financial products. MERCO Credit Union is very committed to Mariposa and surrounding community. Unlike the big banks, all our employees and their families live, work, worship and go to school in this community. We care about the community because it is our community too.

SDM Technology began building composite presses and compsite aerospace panels in 1982 for McDonnell Douglas. The owner, Dean Maples, became directly involved in composite processing in 1967 at Zero Bonded Structures manufacturing panels for the portable hospitals used in Viet Nam conflict. He was promoted to Materials and Process Manager and was responsible for all panel and autoclave processing.
In 1997 SDM delivered the first Laminator Series presses. This equipment was the most advanced composite press available. In 2016 SDM delivered the first Laminator with MaxRamp II platens. This Laminator is the fastest cycling most advanced composite press in the World. Every major composite panel manufacture uses SDM's Laminator's series of composite presses. They are the dominate composite press available today. These panels are used throughout the Boeing and the AirBus aircraft fleets.

John provides great insight to the Board’s past and decisions that have been previously made. When not spending time with his family and beautiful grandchildren, he also serves as a member of the Car Show committee and is truly dedicated to making our county the best it can be!

Karen has the elite status of Director Emeritus! In 2004, she started a home-based embroidery business. After moving to Mariposa in 2005, she expanded the business in 2009 to include garment printing. Today, Karen and her sister, Kim, are co-owners of Ladybug Embroidery and Garment Printing in Mariposa.

Karen has been very involved, currently and in the past, with local organizations. Her involvement includes:
Mariposa Businesswoman of the Year 2012
Charter Member, Made in Mariposa
Secretary, Mariposa County Business Association
Council Officer and Leader, Mariposa County 4-H
Member, Mariposa Lions Club
Volunteer, Mariposa History Museum
Member, Veterans Memorial Committee
Member, Friends of Veterans Association


Karen’s goals are to encourage local businesses to participate in programs and services offered by the Mariposa Chamber of Commerce, encourage local residents to purchase goods from Chamber of Commerce members when possible, and to continually promote local businesses. She is a strong advocate for shopping local.