Staff

Lisa McNaney – Executive Director

Lisa is the Founder and Executive Director of Culinary Angels which grew out of many family and personal experiences with cancer. Lisa has always been a passionate cook who wholeheartedly believes that organic, nutritious foods can fortify a person’s body, especially during a difficult health challenge. As a cancer survivor, Lisa became intimately aware of the value of proper nutrition in the role of fighting cancer. She whole-heartedly believes that “food is medicine.”

“Culinary Angels was created to not only provide hope, health and wellness, but the opportunity to exemplify nutritional education to its recipients. Our service visually represents a healthy, healing meal, as well as providing critical ingredients that promote fortification at a time in a person’s life where they can experience the benefits,“ she says.

Lisa has been a part of many community efforts involving health awareness, education, meals and cooking practices for the past 15 years. Prior to Culinary Angels, Lisa had a marketing and graphic design business for 24 years where she created marketing collateral for local businesses throughout the Bay Area. Lisa has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from SF State. She was raised in Southern California before moving to Livermore in 2002. In addition to cooking, Lisa enjoys hiking and trying to find the lighter side in life.

Bill Ziegler – Chef & Kitchen Manager

Bill began his culinary career in 2003, working for a catering company in Pleasanton under the tutelage of Chef Jim Rio. From there, he joined award winning Chef Rodney Worth, helping to open Rod’s flagship restaurant, The Peasant and the Pear. For the next several years, Bill continued his on-the-job training and became the Dining Services Director at a retirement community. In this position, he gained a greater understanding of the importance of creating healthy, flavorful recipes for all the residents, especially those with health concerns. Learning to cook more healthy meals, utilizing herbs and seasonings to maximize flavor while limiting salt, was the perfect foundation for the transition into the Head Chef role with Culinary Angels. Bill adds, “Having lost my father to cancer in 2016, this is an organization that is near and dear to my heart.” In his spare time, Bill feeds his soul by playing drums in a local rock band.

Cindy Henderson – Marketing & Social Media Manager

Cindy joined Culinary Angels in January of 2022 after a career in executive sales and marketing management within the business products industry. Wanting to immerse herself in something that more directly and positively impacted others she chose Culinary Angels. She was drawn to our mission, like so many others, because of the personal impact she experienced when those dear to her received a cancer diagnosis.  Her creativity, business skills and success managing projects and people lends itself to the numerous priorities relative to communications, social media, marketing, photography and project management for our organization.  She leads our Nutritional Education Committee, a growth area for Culinary Angels.  A photographer, ceramics artist, traveler & lifelong lover of SF sports teams, she resides in San Ramon and cherishes time spent with her two adult sons.