GREG DRESCHER

Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives, The Culinary Institute of America; Napa, USA

Greg Drescher is senior advisor for strategic initiatives at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Previously, and most recently as CIA vice president for strategic initiatives and industry leadership, he oversaw (for 27 years) the college’s leadership initiatives, including academic and strategic partnerships, conferences, and other global initiatives.

He is the co-creator of Menus of Change and Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives, jointly presented by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, co-led by the CIA and Stanford University in association with more than 60 leading colleges and universities; and the annual Global Plant-Forward Culinary Summit and Plant-Forward Kitchen digital media platform.

In 2005, Greg was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America, and subsequently shared a second and third Beard Award for the CIA’s World Culinary Arts digital media series.

He served on the National Academy of Medicine’s Committee on Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States. In the early 1990’s, before joining the CIA, he jointly spearheaded a collaboration of some of the world’s leading health experts and organizations in authoring The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: A Cultural Model for Healthy Eating.