brewmaster and student checking beer vats

Business of Craft Beer Advisory Board

Key figures in craft beer from the Chicago area serve on the Business of Craft Beer Program advisory board to identify course content, develop curriculum and instruct courses.

Don DiBrita

Don DiBrita

Don DiBrita is the President of Craft to Craft Marketing, a marketing company in the Chicago area, which works with clients in North America, South America and Europe. His company specializes in working with small businesses that are struggling to engage their audience and helps them to build communities that convert into sales. Don is also the creator of Beer Dogging which is one of the largest beer clubs in the United States.

Marty Nachel

Marty Nachel

Marty Nachel has been involved in the craft brewing industry for over three decades. An award-winning beer writer, Nachel has authored three books on beer including "Beer for Dummies" and "Homebrewing for Dummies". Marty is also a professional beer judge who has judged at the Samuel Adams LongShot finals in Boston, the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, the World Beer cup in Nashville, Festival of Barrel Aged Beer (FoBAB) in Chicago, and Copa Cervezas de America in Santiago, Chile. Marty co-instructs the two prerequisite classes that lead into the Business of Craft Beer program.

Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt is co-owner and co-founder of Orange & Brew Bottle Shop in Downers Grove. With a background in television reporting, Eric can also be seen on the Comcast Network in Chicago. His versatility includes covering high school sports as a sideline reporter for the "Xfinity Game of the Week", as well as feature stories for Comcast's "On Demand" platform. He also served as the restaurant and bar reporter for Comcast's Emmy Award-winning "Primetime Chicago" and is a fill-in host for "Community Connections". On the personal side, Eric is a "Pitch In" volunteer mentor for the Wood Family Foundation, working out of Lawndale Community Academy. He also coaches travel baseball and is a board member for his fraternity at the University of Illinois.

Randy Douglas

Randy Douglas

Randy Douglas is a former student of College of DuPage's Business of Craft Beer as well as a Certified Cicerone. He has worked for Pollyanna Brewing Company since 2018 (4 years of which as General Manager of the Lemont and Roselle locations and currently as Lead Key in Lemont) after teaching elementary school for over a decade and earning his MBA with Concordia University.

While attending the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, Heather found her passion for cooking and entertaining for friends and family. After receiving her B.A. in Psychology, Heather decided to move to Evanston, where she worked at Wolfgang Puck's and continued her education in Culinary Arts at Kendall College. After becoming a general manager, Heather decided it was time to go back for her M.B.A, which she received at Dominican University in River Forest.

Contact Us

To learn more, or if you are interested in teaching or hosting a course at your facility, contact Jenifer Walsh, program manager, at (630) 942-3045 or walshj103@cod.edu.