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Trent Preszler

Trent Preszler

  • Professor of Practice
  • Academic Director of the Dyson Leadership Development Program

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Faculty Area

Faculty Expertise

  • Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics and Policy
  • Sustainable Business
  • Farm and Agribusiness Management

Contact

Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

tlp24@cornell.edu

Cornell Directory Entry

Website

Biography

Trent Preszler is a Professor of Practice in the Dyson School and recipient of the 2024 Dean's Distinguished Award for Societal Impact in Teaching. He serves as Faculty Director of both the Dyson Leadership Program and the Thoreau Planetary Solutions Initiative, preparing undergraduate students to confront global economic and environmental challenges through systems thinking.

His courses span the Dyson Grand Challenges curriculum, including AEM 1101: Dyson Foundations, Business for a Better World (the required first-year course), a writing-intensive sophomore course in climate-smart agribusiness, and senior capstone consulting projects in the Amazon rainforest of Peru, where students partner directly with social-impact organizations.

Preszler’s scholarship and public writing examine how agriculture, forestry, and enterprise shape ecological and economic systems worldwide. His work has been featured or quoted in Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, The New York Times, Scientific American, and on CBS Sunday Morning. He is the author of Little and Often: A Memoir (William Morrow/HarperCollins), a #1 bestseller on Amazon Books and a 2021 USA Today Best Book of the Year. His second book, Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America (Algonquin Books/Little, Brown & Co/Hachette Book Group), was longlisted for the 2026 PEN America E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

Preszler serves on the Board of Directors of One Tree Planted, a nonprofit supporting reforestation initiatives in 72 countries through partnerships with the World Resources Institute, Jane Goodall Institute, Microsoft, FedEx, Volvo, Nestlé, and the rock band Coldplay. Before joining Cornell, he spent two decades in the wine industry as CEO of Bedell Cellars, a sustainably farmed vineyard and winery on Long Island, New York. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation and Wine America.

Raised on a cattle ranch on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Preszler began his career as a White House intern for President Bill Clinton. A former winemaker and wooden boatbuilder, his life story was profiled in a documentary that won a New York Emmy Award in 2017.

Selected Publications

Awards and Honors

  • PEN America E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Longlist (2026) PEN America
  • Community-Engaged Practice and Innovation Award (2025) David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement
  • Dean's Distinguished Award for Societal Impact in Teaching (2025 - 2027) SC Johnson College of Business
  • Faculty Grant Award (2024 - 2027) Henry David Thoreau Foundation
  • National Book Festival: “Little and Often” (2024) Library of Congress

Recent Courses

  • AEM 2816 - Climate-Smart Agribusiness
  • AEM 1101 - Dyson Foundations: Business for a Better World
  • AEM 5305 - Global Citizenship Seminar
  • AEM 4004 - Grand Challenges Abroad
  • AEM 4003 - Grand Challenges Abroad III

Academic Degrees

  • PhD Cornell University, 2012
  • MS Cornell University, 2002
  • Post-Graduate Diploma The University of Edinburgh, 1999
  • BS Iowa State University, 1998

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