Community Spotlight

Sarah Anne Risk | Derek Moore | Amy Pyles

By Craig Smith

Sarah Anne Risk had an idyllic childhood near Greensboro, North Carolina. She had an older brother and younger sister, and the family lived across the street from her grandparents, aunts and uncles. Summers were spent at her grandparents’ swimming pool with the whole clan gathering for Saturday night cookouts. “I got to be a kid without any worries,” she said.

Sarah loved her high school chemistry teacher and decided to follow that career path. After graduation, she taught for a couple of years, but didn’t enjoy it. “I was barely older than the students and they treated me like a peer,” she said. Plus, she had to be at work at 7:00 AM, and quickly discovered that she is not a morning person.

Mike Risk, the man she had been dating, moved to Napa to work on a vineyard property, which began a long-distance relationship for the couple. They married in 2013, and Sarah moved here. “Professionally, I was kind of lost,” she admitted. She did some substitute teaching, but still did not want to teach. “I applied to be a Chick-fil-a owner, but that fell through.” She got a winery job as a Hospitality Assistant, but left after a few months to join the Napa Valley Grape Growers, doing special events. That’s when everything began to change.

“I worked with photographers at events, and it really opened my eyes.” She bought a DSLR camera and learned how to use it from You Tube videos. She and Mike had different days off and it gave her the time to explore the Valley with her camera. Someone asked her for a family photo, then someone else asked her to take events at their private event. “I never thought of photography as a ‘thing,’ it was just fun.” She was asked to do photos at the first Fork to Table event at the Oxbow Market, and got lots of compliments for her work. “I was kind of surprised. It’s so beautiful here, I figured how could anyone mess up pictures.”

In 2014, Sarah started doing photography jobs, more as a side hustle. She was more and more in demand, and in 2018, quit her job to make photography her full-time gig. “It was scary to give up a steady income. At first, I would wake up in the morning and think, ’Well, what am I going to do today?’”

Sarah and Mike added Talley, an Airedale Terrier, to their family in 2020. “She is the best dog in the world.” Daughter Libby was born in November of 2023, and Sarah has been able to spend lots of time with her. She also realized that Talley wouldn’t be with them forever, and decided to memorialize her dog in short stories based on her Napa Valley adventures. She thought about turning those stories into a children’s book, and bounced the idea off Naomi Chamblin, owner of Napa Bookmine. “She said, ‘Everybody wants to write a children’s book about their dog,’ but when I explained how I wanted to do it, she encouraged me,” said Sarah. She self-published “The ABC’s of Napa Talley,” which has done surprisingly well.

Sarah is quite happy being a wife, mom and photographer in the Napa Valley. As for future books? “I hope so. I want to write about Talley’s adventures outside of Napa, ‘The One, Two, Threes of Talley.’”

Derek Moore was 16 when his family moved to Napa from Oklahoma so that his stepfather could take a job in the wine industry. It was a difficult adjustment for the teen. “I didn’t know anything about Napa,” Derek recalled recently. “I thought California was all beaches.”

As a junior at Vintage High School, Derek began to make friends and settle into his new home. He also took an English class taught by Sushanna Ellington, who was the first to unlock Derek’s potential as a writer. “Her class completely changed me as a person,” he said.

At Sacramento State University, Derek sought out the school newspaper while earning credits toward a journalism degree. For his first assignment, he wrote about a fellow student who had contacted the newsroom to complain about a rat infestation in her off-campus apartment. After the article ran, the landlord cleared up the infestation, and Derek discovered the power of journalism. “I’ve been writing about rats ever since,” he quipped.

After graduating from college, Derek accepted a full-time job with the Napa Valley Register, which was then expanding coverage of Upvalley cities and the city of American Canyon. He went on to report on a diverse range of topics – everything from Robert Mondavi’s 80th birthday party at Opus One Winery (an event that required Derek to rent a tuxedo) to murder trials, numerous floods and the occasional parade. The Register also sent Derek to Oklahoma City to cover the aftermath of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after he wrote a personal perspective essay that caught the attention of the paper’s managers.

On a much lighter note, Derek likes to joke that he met his future wife, December, while he was on the crime beat. She was a court reporter working on a high-profile case Derek was assigned to cover. The pair began dating and later were married in Las Vegas.

A few years into his career, Derek was awarded a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship sponsored by the Napa Sunrise Rotary Club. He selected South Africa for his all-expenses paid year abroad out of fascination for that country’s transition from Apartheid to democratic rule. He earned a post-graduate diploma in African Studies from the University of Cape Town and traveled across southern Africa to speak to Rotary clubs. One of his more meaningful experiences was visiting the island prison where Nelson Mandela was confined for 27 years.

Returning to Napa, Derek parlayed a one-month freelance assignment into an 18-year stint with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. He wrote stories spanning a wide range of subjects, notably natural disasters, the environment and adolescent health. Tiring of the commute, he stepped away from daily news for an eventual return to freelance work, mostly for his former employer. In 2018, he shared in the Press Democrat’s Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Northern California wildfires.

At that time, Napa High School was looking for a cross country coach. Never mind Derek hadn’t competed on a running team since the eighth grade and came to the interview with no formal coaching experience. He landed the job. Derek is now entering his eighth season as the Grizzlies coach. He’s also an assistant track coach and substitute teacher.

Derek and December – who is a third generation Napan – have two children, Jack and Claire, both of whom attend Napa High and run for the Grizzlies.

“My love for Napa was hard won, but this is my home now. I love this community and the people in it,” Derek said. “I feel connected in a way I could have never imagined as a 16-year-old fresh off the plane from Oklahoma.”

Amy Pyles Equal parts fashion, fitness, and a healthy gem obsession inspire the creative pursuits of designer Amy Pyles. Treasure hunting, rock hoarding, coin collecting, dress-up – her childhood pastimes would eventually pave the way to a self-made career in jewelry.

Independent Napa-based designer Amy creates bold, contemporary pieces that have earned her a growing fanbase – and national attention. Her work has been featured in top industry publications like INSTORE and JCK; the latter being, in her words, “what Vogue is to fashion.” Her work can be found across retailers in NY, FL, PA, GA, and throughout the Bay Area.

Amy’s path to jewelry design wasn’t linear. Raised in small towns across Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, she eventually moved to Philadelphia for college. The city’s energy ignited something creative in her. While pursuing a degree in advertising, she began crafting beaded jewelry.

Her creative outlet quickly snowballed. She expanded her technical skillset, launched a website, and earned credentials from the Gemological Institute of America. When she landed a gig on Philadelphia’s famed Jeweler’s Row, she was exposed to the ‘finer side’ of jewelry and its covert manufacturing. “I felt like a kid in Wonka’s chocolate factory. To glimpse behind the scenes was a dream come true,” she admits. From there, her passion only intensified.

After twelve years in Philly, Amy craved a lifestyle shift. A trip to Napa struck the perfect chord – offering the charm of small-town living with just enough social energy to feel connected. She moved in 2016. “I fell in love with the Valley,” she says. “This is the first place I’ve felt a real sense of community.”

After stints at TORC and Makers Market, Amy opened her namesake LLC in 2017 and hasn’t looked back. Since landing in Napa, Amy has deepened her craft through metalworking. She is a multi-award winner at shows in Beverly Hills and New York, recognized for her unique design perspective. She draws inspiration from “the extravagance of high fashion, and the geological fairytales of natural gemstones.”

With a new studio on the horizon, Amy plans to offer private shopping experiences, design consultations, and collaborate more closely with the community. “My heart is here,” she says. “I have incredible friends, strong support from local businesses, and the Napa Hot Yoga studio is like family.”

Amy’s bold, sculptural pieces aren’t for everyone. She designs statement pieces for unique personalities. In a valley full of world-class makers, Amy hopes to blend a little ‘East Coast cool’ into the local fabric.

If you haven’t seen her work yet, keep an eye out – you’ll know it when you do. She showcased this summer at Auberge du Soleil, Blue Note Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian Craft Show, SF Yacht Club, and the Beverly Hills Art Show, to name a few.