Trent Preszler

Biography

Trent Preszler is Professor of Practice, Faculty Director of the Dyson Leadership Development Program, and Director of the Thoreau Planetary Solutions Initiative. His teaching spans the Dyson Grand Challenges curriculum, including the required first-year course, AEM 1101: Dyson Foundations–Business for a Better World, and a writing-intensive course in climate-smart agribusiness. He also leads senior capstone learning treks to South Africa and Peru, where students partner with social-impact organizations to address complex sustainability challenges. For his work preparing students to lead at the intersection of business, society, and the environment, Preszler received the 2025-2026 Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Dean’s Distinguished Award for Societal Impact in Teaching.

Through the Dyson Leadership Program, Preszler mentors a select cohort of Leadership Fellows across multiple years, helping students develop the communication and analytical skills needed to understand the root causes and perpetuating factors of society’s most urgent “wicked problems.” Each summer, the program culminates with a team of Fellows traveling to the University of Oxford to compete in the international Map the System challenge, where they present their findings to an international panel of judges.

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

Before joining the Cornell faculty, Preszler spent two decades in the wine industry as CEO of Bedell Cellars, a sustainable vineyard and winery on the North Fork of Long Island. During that time, he served as Board Chairman of both the New York Wine & Grape Foundation and Wine America, the national association of American wineries. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of One Tree Planted, a nonprofit organization supporting reforestation projects in 84 countries with such corporate partners as AstraZeneca, FedEx, Hyundai, Nestle, Volvo, and the rock band Coldplay.

Raised on a cattle ranch on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, Preszler attended a one-room schoolhouse before graduating from Iowa State University in 1998. He began his career as a White House intern for President Bill Clinton before a brief stint at Goldman Sachs during the firm’s landmark initial public offering. In the 2000s, he developed a passion for traditional wooden boatbuilding and became the subject of a documentary that won a New York Emmy Award in 2017.

Education

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

Research

• Preszler, Trent. Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America. Algonquin Books, an imprint of Little, Brown & Co, Hachette Book Group. (2025): 224
• Preszler, Trent. Little and Often: A Memoir. WIlliam Morrow Books an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. (2021)

Awards

• 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