Desiree Wineland
- Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives
- Academic Affairs
Additional Information
Areas of Focus
- Leading visioning and strategic planning processes around key initiatives.
- Assessing the feasibility and return on investment by identifying critical decision making points, budgetary and other resource needs, and potential risks.
- Cultivate philanthropic and community support in partnership with campus leadership for the purpose of raising funds needed to advance and support key initiatives.
- Identify and foster potential corporate partnerships intended to support key initiatives and establish pipelines for workforce development.
Biography
Desiree’s diverse experience spans various facets of leadership, from being certified in Safety and OSHA, ATC and Space Operations, Force Development, and Logistics. She quickly came up on the senior Army leadership’s radar after she created the 8th Army aviation supply distribution plan after deploying her unit in Korea and was personally recognized by the Secretary of Defense for her creative problem-solving solutions. Desiree is not afraid to create needed changes to improve operations and systems. Her leadership style is result-oriented with a unique ability to calculate and mitigate risk. A testament to this rare capability was her selection to several critical National Security level positions; to manage the Army’s Equipping Strategy at the Pentagon, to become a government contracting oversight officer in a Joint assignment with the United States Department of State, test-flying and leading aviation foreign military sales to the Egyptian and Columbian governments. Desiree is the consummate global Ambassador and has served as the Army’s representative for the Department of Defense’s Joint Civilian Outreach Conference (JCOC), which hosts civilian leaders from civic, academia, and Fortune 500 CEOs, where they spend a week with DoD and literally deploy overseas to see our warfighter and capabilities on action.
It is the culmination of these experiences and leadership opportunities that provided Desiree with the courage to forge new paths within Agriculture after she and her husband retired from the Pentagon in 2009. Once they planted roots in Nebraska, Desiree volunteered on various family farms and that is where she learned that rural farming and ranching families couldn’t get access to large meat processing facilities because the "big guys” didn’t want to be bothered with a few farm family animals because it was not an effective means of economy of scale. Desiree set out to prove differently and found herself a new mission after the military.
She was determined to find a way to preserve American Agriculture heritage and the legacy of farming and ranching families, and that’s exactly what she did. Desiree studied federal regulations, USDA procedures, and business models, created an innovative 3-tier business model that is both vertical and horizontal, and has changed the paradigm across America. Desiree believes that Americans really do want to know where their food comes from and that they want and deserve the very best handcrafted meats. Hence American Butchers was born in 2011 and expanded into Dallas, Texas in 2017. In 2018, Desiree was selected as a Dallas Person of Interest (POI) in D Magazine’s April issue, and was especially humbled when she saw one of her inspiring female role models, First Lady Laura Bush, was the POI for May. After completing the Goldman Sachs 10KSM growth plan in August 2019, Desiree intends to expand their operation across America to make a great impact in supporting Farming and Ranching Families and American Agriculture. In 2019, Desiree spoke at the Women’s Economic Forum in London, where in 2021, Desiree graduated from Oxford Said Business School, in Innovation and Strategy.
Desiree continues to be passionate about giving back and making improvements and challenges the status quo whenever needed. Desiree has been a strong advocate for finding peaceful resolutions through discussions, collaboration, and respecting each other’s differences. Desiree started a ChemClub in her high school to promote STEM, she also started a Special Olympics Team in her community and now instrumentally serves on both organization’s Boards. Desiree is also a proud life member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Women In Aviation International, Ninety-nines, AAAA, and serves on the National Committee for Meat and Poultry Inspection. In addition, she is a member of various restaurant and meat processing associations, President of Nebraska Diplomats, and a Founding Ambassador for the Women Military Museum. She is a Freeman of the City of London and a Livery of the Butchers Guild. Desiree and her husband Cal just celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary and are proud of their two sons, Calvin is also a helicopter pilot and CPT in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Hood, TX, and Austin is the Manager of American Butchers, Nebraska and proudly serves in the Nebraska National Guard.
Additional Information
Areas of Focus
- Leading visioning and strategic planning processes around key initiatives.
- Assessing the feasibility and return on investment by identifying critical decision making points, budgetary and other resource needs, and potential risks.
- Cultivate philanthropic and community support in partnership with campus leadership for the purpose of raising funds needed to advance and support key initiatives.
- Identify and foster potential corporate partnerships intended to support key initiatives and establish pipelines for workforce development.
Biography
Desiree’s diverse experience spans various facets of leadership, from being certified in Safety and OSHA, ATC and Space Operations, Force Development, and Logistics. She quickly came up on the senior Army leadership’s radar after she created the 8th Army aviation supply distribution plan after deploying her unit in Korea and was personally recognized by the Secretary of Defense for her creative problem-solving solutions. Desiree is not afraid to create needed changes to improve operations and systems. Her leadership style is result-oriented with a unique ability to calculate and mitigate risk. A testament to this rare capability was her selection to several critical National Security level positions; to manage the Army’s Equipping Strategy at the Pentagon, to become a government contracting oversight officer in a Joint assignment with the United States Department of State, test-flying and leading aviation foreign military sales to the Egyptian and Columbian governments. Desiree is the consummate global Ambassador and has served as the Army’s representative for the Department of Defense’s Joint Civilian Outreach Conference (JCOC), which hosts civilian leaders from civic, academia, and Fortune 500 CEOs, where they spend a week with DoD and literally deploy overseas to see our warfighter and capabilities on action.
It is the culmination of these experiences and leadership opportunities that provided Desiree with the courage to forge new paths within Agriculture after she and her husband retired from the Pentagon in 2009. Once they planted roots in Nebraska, Desiree volunteered on various family farms and that is where she learned that rural farming and ranching families couldn’t get access to large meat processing facilities because the "big guys” didn’t want to be bothered with a few farm family animals because it was not an effective means of economy of scale. Desiree set out to prove differently and found herself a new mission after the military.
She was determined to find a way to preserve American Agriculture heritage and the legacy of farming and ranching families, and that’s exactly what she did. Desiree studied federal regulations, USDA procedures, and business models, created an innovative 3-tier business model that is both vertical and horizontal, and has changed the paradigm across America. Desiree believes that Americans really do want to know where their food comes from and that they want and deserve the very best handcrafted meats. Hence American Butchers was born in 2011 and expanded into Dallas, Texas in 2017. In 2018, Desiree was selected as a Dallas Person of Interest (POI) in D Magazine’s April issue, and was especially humbled when she saw one of her inspiring female role models, First Lady Laura Bush, was the POI for May. After completing the Goldman Sachs 10KSM growth plan in August 2019, Desiree intends to expand their operation across America to make a great impact in supporting Farming and Ranching Families and American Agriculture. In 2019, Desiree spoke at the Women’s Economic Forum in London, where in 2021, Desiree graduated from Oxford Said Business School, in Innovation and Strategy.
Desiree continues to be passionate about giving back and making improvements and challenges the status quo whenever needed. Desiree has been a strong advocate for finding peaceful resolutions through discussions, collaboration, and respecting each other’s differences. Desiree started a ChemClub in her high school to promote STEM, she also started a Special Olympics Team in her community and now instrumentally serves on both organization’s Boards. Desiree is also a proud life member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Women In Aviation International, Ninety-nines, AAAA, and serves on the National Committee for Meat and Poultry Inspection. In addition, she is a member of various restaurant and meat processing associations, President of Nebraska Diplomats, and a Founding Ambassador for the Women Military Museum. She is a Freeman of the City of London and a Livery of the Butchers Guild. Desiree and her husband Cal just celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary and are proud of their two sons, Calvin is also a helicopter pilot and CPT in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Hood, TX, and Austin is the Manager of American Butchers, Nebraska and proudly serves in the Nebraska National Guard.