Arnica is a researcher, strategist, educator and writer with a passion for wine.
Arnica spent eleven years teaching and researching at two Canadian colleges and a US university. Her specialty was business, with focuses in change management and sustainability. She was awarded the top post-secondary teaching award in Alberta for Innovation in Teaching, and was the recipient of the prestigious SSHRC graduate scholarship. Arnica has lectured at conferences around the world, from Pittsburg to Marrakech.
Her entrepreneurial talents have launched successful businesses and impactful NGOs in a variety of sectors, and now Arnica continues to coach other entrepreneurs to chase their own dreams. With Terroir Consulting, Arnica combines her passion for wine and her experience as a seasoned business consultant to support wine and beverage businesses and associations to reach their goals, proving market research, organizational strategy, export and portfolio planning and curriculum development services. With a consulting career spanning two decades, Arnica has also worked with multi-national businesses, family-owned businesses, government, First Nations, post-secondary institutions and NGOs outside the wine sector, to strategic plan, connect stakeholders, develop organizations, create brand identities, develop integrated communication/marketing plans and convey scientific research to the public and decision makers.
Arnica has been privileged to visit many of the major wine regions of the world, and is a certified Rioja Wine Educator. She has completed her Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 4 Diploma, and is currently pursuing membership in the Institute of Masters of Wine. Arnica also holds a Bachelor of Commerce with honours from the University of Alberta, and a Master of Arts in Environmental Education and Communication from Royal Roads University.
Arnica is a founding director and serves as Chief Learning Officer of Vinica Education Society, a non-profit dedicated to diversifying the wine industry through education, a member of the Diversity in Wine Leadership Forum, and co-founder of the Tasting Games, the BC wine industry’s tasting competition. With passions for honest wine and romantic stories, Arnica also writes off-the-beaten-path articles highlighting social and environmental issues for JancisRobinson.com.