Laura Dreesen is an associate professor of Business Management at CIA’s New York campus. She has taught numerous classes, including Culinary Math, Cost Control, Computers in the Food Business, and Intra-Venture Operations Technology in the Intrapreneurship program. She is currently teaching Principles of Menus and Managing Profitability in Foodservice Operations. Through her instruction, she helps students understand recipe costing, the income statement, key financial ratios, profitability planning, as well as how the menu drives a restaurant’s operations.
Her background includes direct experience in the hospitality industry, having worked in front-of-house at The Locust Tree Inn in New Paltz, NY; Mariner’s Harbor in Highland, NY; as well as Jeremiah Sweeney’s and Shelly’s Steak House in Bloomington, IN. She attended Indiana University for the first half of her undergraduate degree then transferred to the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she earned both her Bachelor’s in Finance and Master of Science in Teaching.
Since joining CIA in 1996, she has served in several roles, including as a learning specialist and coordinator of academic computer laboratories. She joined the Business Management department as faculty in 2003. Prior to joining the Culinary, she was Assistant Controller for ASI (a local manufacturing business) and Regional Manager for Automatic Data Processing.
Dreesen is a coauthor of Math for the Professional Kitchen (J. Wiley & Sons, 2011), a textbook widely used in culinary education for its clear approach to recipe costing, yield management, and profitability analysis. Additionally, she was a Co-Faculty Advisor for Amusé, which was a CIA student literary magazine. In her role, Dreesen helped to publish the magazine and host special events, including bringing Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman to campus for a writers’ workshop.
She also has served as on the Practical Committee, the Externship Committee as Vice Chair, the Curriculum Committee as Vice Chair, the Information Literacy Committee—Middle States self-study for initial college accreditation, the Admissions Committee—Middle States self-study for continued accreditation, the Academic Technology & Facilities Committee, the Plagiarism Committee, the St. Andrew’s Computer Lab Committee—as Chair, and the Distance Learning Committee.
Outside of the kitchen and classroom, Dreesen can be found hiking in the Shawangunk mountains, traveling, gardening, and spending time with family and friends.