Desiree C. Wineland

Desiree Wineland was born in Sweden and moved to the United States with her family when she was 7 years old and currently lives in Dallas, Texas. For 24 years, Desiree served in the United States Army. She served as a helicopter test pilot, a public affairs officer, and selected as the first female Commander of an attack helicopter (AH-64) Battalion, and in various Aviation and Air Traffic Control Commands. Desiree was also selected for various Joint assignments, Foreign military sales with the Department of State, working with the Egyptian and Colombian governments. Desiree was recognized early in her career as an outstanding leader and was selected as a Douglas MacArthur Leadership recipient, one of 24 top officers in the United States Army, which was presented by the Army’s highest ranking officer. Desiree was one of the youngest officers selected as a Defense Congressional Fellow and served in the United States Senate following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Desiree has been an advocate for STEM education, and worked for the Chief, Army Scientist and Army Science Board. After retirement, Desiree and her family moved to Nebraska, she started a Special Olympics Team to allow all athletes an opportunity to compete, and then collaborated with the American Chemical Society and started a high school ChemClub. To learn more about Agriculture, Desiree started taking classes and volunteering on various family farms and and that is where Desiree found her new mission to help sustain rural Farming and Ranching Families. During the last 10 years, Desiree took her vision to sustain small family operations and use that model as an example of how we can feed the world, while empowering women entrepreneurs and combine the two to work towards global peace. Desiree has changed the paradigm and proved that bigger is not always better. For her initiatives, Desiree was recognized by the White House as a “Champion of Change in Agriculture”. Desiree’s vision and passion lead her to become the Founder and CEO of three businesses; American Butchers (Nebraska), American Butcher Shop and American Butcher’s Grille (Dallas, Texas). With less than a year after expanding from Nebraska to Dallas, American Butchers was recognized as the “Best Butcher in Dallas.” for their unique problem solving, their high quality meats and exceptional customer service. Desiree was selected and featured in D Magazine as April’s “Dallas Person of Interest.” (Note, Laura Bush was featured in the May issue). In her free time, she loves being immersed with the Arts, she loves learning and traveling because is allows her to make friends around the world and build collaborate initiatives. Desiree and her husband just celebrated their 25th Anniversary and together have two sons, Calvin, is a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army and started flight school in January, and Austin is in his 2nd year of studying to become a teacher and serves in the Nebraska National Guard, Special Operations unit. Desiree’s passion is to foster global growth and loves strategic problem solving.