Elizabeth Dressler was born and raised in a farming community, which gave her first-hand insight on how to work and protect the land, leaving it better than it was found. She always dreamed of supporting agriculture and helping the world understand it in a more cerebral way, and she made that her career.
Dressler’s professional journey has supported agriculture from food safety, sustainability, product quality and enhancement, regulatory compliance, and genomic research to brand development, sales, marketing, communication, crisis planning, and production. She moved into the natural, organic and regenerative space as a way to support the planet and agriculture.
In addition to agriculture and sustainability, Dressler has always been passionate about startups and small companies, seeing them as an opportunity to work alongside like-minded individuals with similar goals and aspirations. Capra Foods approached Dressler to develop its operations and marketing divisions, with the goal of Capra Foods becoming the leading regenerative protein company in North America within the next 10 years.
The mission of Capra Foods is to feed the world while helping save the planet through regenerative and sustainable farming and ranching practices that help rebuild ecosystems and replenish natural resources. “Elizabeth is a dedicated leader who has demonstrated the ability to set a vision, develop strategic and tactical plans, and execute plans to achieve results-based outcomes,” the company said.
“Elizabeth has worked in all aspects of the industry, including board and team management, which allows her to support the company both as a visionary and integrator, which is rare in leadership today.”
Dressler was honored by Oklahoma State University with the Graduate Research Excellence Award for her graduate research project on vitamin E supplementation in beef cattle to improve the shelf life of beef products. During college, Dressler worked in Washington, D.C., for a member of the U.S. Congress, and was accepted to the Hansard Scholars Program at the University of London, where she worked for a member of Parliament.
Most recently, Dressler was appointed by the USDA secretary of agriculture to the American Lamb board of directors for two terms, 2015–2017 and 2018–2020. She also served as the executive committee secretary of the American Lamb board of directors for several years.
“Living a balanced life has always been very important to me. At the same time, I always strive to be the best that I can in all that I do,” Dressler said. “From a risk-reward perspective, I have taken many throughout my career. I have turned down executive-level positions because the timing or leadership was not right. … Ultimately, when making decisions about my career, I always evaluate the impact on my family, my goals and my career aspirations, to ensure they are in balance.”
