Check Out Anna Shields’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Shields.

Hi Anna, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was first introduced to the dairy industry at the age of 16 when I met my former employer and lifelong mentor, Stacy Hall. The day after I got my driver’s license, I hooked a horse trailer to my parents’ 15-passenger van and drove myself and my horse to a trail ride. Impressed by my tenacity and drive for independence, Stacy offered me a job on her and her husband’s 150-cow dairy farm, an offer I promptly accepted. Later that year, I moved out of my parents’ house and onto the farm to step into my role as a full-time farmhand.

I spent five years in that role, eventually working my way up to Farm Manager on their second, larger 250-head dairy farm. When I became pregnant with my eldest daughter, I needed a role that was a little less physically laborious. I transitioned to Snowville Creamery, a dairy processing plant located right next door to the farm.

I started in the custodial department and steadily worked my way into customer service. From there, I became the Department Manager, and eventually accepted the role of General Manager in 2020. Taking the helm at the height of COVID-19 meant navigating one of the most vulnerable and challenging times in Snowville’s history. Through clawing, scratching, and overcoming extreme hardships, I was promoted to SheEO (CEO) in 2022. Since entering the C-suite, my team and I, backed by our devout customer base and community stakeholders, have successfully transformed what was once becoming an unsalvageable business into one that is holding its own in a notoriously brutal industry.

My journey from farm hand to SheEO, or as I like to say, from the teat to the shelf, has allowed me the opportunity to overcome profound challenges as a person, a single mother, and a woman in a male-dominated field. Victoria, the owner of Snowville Creamery, has always championed a “whole-person” philosophy. We recognize that for employees to be their best at work, we must support them in being their best outside of work. As a single mother, this culture allowed me to prioritize my children, giving me the stability to invest myself wholly into leading the company.

This understanding of work-life balance guides my leadership team today. People don’t just care about what you say; they care about how you make them feel. Prioritizing people is the true input that directly impacts the bottom line. I root my leadership in connection over comfort. Staying comfortable blocks out the grit-forming skills required for hard conversations. By leaning into the discomfort of staying deeply connected to our people and our challenges, we foster an environment where our mission is clear and our path forward is defined.

At Snowville, we are on a mission to enrich the planet and the lives of our customers, farmers, and employees by producing premium, wholesome dairy products. To enrich, you have to first root yourself in understanding that your inputs need to always be beyond yourself. You’re investing in creating better opportunities for others, from your employees all the way through to your community of customers. There’s something magical that happens when you are committed to enrichment, in that the universe gives back to you what you’re seeking to create. Through this journey, one of my favorite things about being a leader is seeing other people excel. As a leader, there is no greater joy than being able to witness your devotion to creating a culture of enrichment excel and reward the people and community that work so hard to make things better for themselves, and the people and places they love. That to me is the true meaning of leadership: to relentlessly devote yourself to the grizzled pursuit of always making things better to the best of your ability, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like everything in life and business, the road is never entirely smooth. Strength and resilience aren’t simply given; they are earned. Success is the journey of the relentless pursuit of continuous improvement, slugged out, thought through, and valiantly strived for each and every day.
The challenges I faced coming into leadership were monumental. When I took over as General Manager in 2020, Snowville was already strained from previous years of hardship and plagued by a toxic culture. This internal friction ultimately led to a full-scale mutiny where three key people quit in a single day, kicking off a total turnover of approximately twenty-five employees over the course of three years. Trying to navigate that chaos while balancing life as a single mother pushed me to my absolute brink. Then, the external world collapsed. When COVID-19 hit, we lost 50 stores on the East Coast, and our largest distributor went bankrupt. We were left in an incredibly vulnerable position that almost forced us to close our doors for good.
We survived by digging into every piece of the business, defining our mission of enrichment, and rooting out anything and anyone that didn’t align with that mission.
When your mission is to enrich, words aren’t enough. It has to be a lived mission. True leadership is prioritizing and investing in your people first. This directly transforms into mutually equitable success for both the business and its individuals.
By leaning into that philosophy, we are now consistently breaking company historical records for production and improvements, all while creating a culture where people feel seen and supported, no matter the task or the role.
Was the road easy? No, but the deepest rewards always require the hardest climbs. We operate on the belief that putting good into the world naturally brings good back to you. Today, we remain fully dedicated to forging a better world through better dairy, providing nourishment for the body, enrichment for the soul, and a lasting community impact that will endure for generations to come.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At Snowville Creamery, we are a woman-owned dairy processing plant in Southeast Ohio making minimally processed A2/A2 dairy for the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region. Operating under a “milk as nature intended” standard, we offer premium, cream-top products made without preservatives, stabilizers, additives, or artificial ingredients, partnering exclusively with local grass-based farmers who prioritize cow comfort and care.
But what I actually do as a leader goes far beyond managing a supply chain. I specialize in turning around struggling operations, building equitable work cultures, and driving regional economic growth in Appalachia.

Personally and professionally, I am known for my unfiltered, upbeat personality and an earned sense of relatable grit. I am a pusher and a dreamer. I deeply believe that life is a series of choices and that our destiny is never defined by our circumstances, but by what we choose to make of them. Every day, I remind myself and my team that we have ultimate control over exactly one thing: ourselves. I challenge my team to constantly ask three questions: How good can I make it? How good can we make it? and lastly, How good can it truly be? When you have your nose to the grindstone, it is easy to forget to imagine the best-case scenario. My job is to make sure we never stop imagining how great things can be, because that is the only way to blow past our current definitions of success.
What I am most proud of is the sheer resilience of what we’ve built. We have transformed an unsalvageable business into a record-breaking operation, all while remaining fiercely loyal to our community through partnerships, sponsorships, and regular food bank donations. We don’t just preach our trademark, “Better Dairy, Better World.” We live it.
What sets me apart from others is that my leadership isn’t academic; it was forged on the farm floor and in the trenches of a crisis. I know how to meet people exactly where they are at, because I have been where they are at. I don’t manage from a comfortable distance. I root my leadership in connection over comfort, because taking the time to understand our inputs and reimagining our wildest, best-case scenarios is the ultimate linchpin to creating the greatest life possible for our business, our employees, and our community.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Press into your value. Looking back at my career, there were so many times early on when I knew the way something was being done was not the best way. But because I was unsure of my own value, I often kept quiet and stayed in the shadows. I was too afraid of being wrong, too scared of what might happen if I spoke up, or silenced by people in whom I had unwisely placed my trust.
My advice to anyone starting out is to never let fear keep you quiet. If something doesn’t seem right, it is usually because it isn’t right, or because you don’t have the full understanding of what is happening yet. In either case, speaking up is the only way to learn and grow. Not rooting yourself in your own value only slows down your journey to prosperity.
Cultivate your own value by leaning directly into your mistakes to understand what you can do differently next time. Trust your gut, ask the hard questions, and refuse to stay silent when you know things can be better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://snowvillecreamery.com
• Instagram: snowvillecreamery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnowvilleCreamery/

Image Credits
Skylar Seavey, Anna Shields