Randi Shubin Dresner

Randi Shubin Dresner has dedicated herself to improving the lives of others, helping to put a face on people who are hungry on Long Island. She has served as president and CEO of Island Harvest, Long Island’s largest hunger-relief organization, since 2001 and is known as a tireless advocate on behalf of people facing hunger. Ms. Dresner has raised awareness of the insidious, yet often unrecognized, problem of chronic hunger on Long Island and stresses the human side of people in need. They are people first and deserve respect, she reminds others. 

Under her leadership, Island Harvest has expanded its programming and operations, including the opening of its third facility, a 24,000-square-foot warehouse in Hauppauge, and the streamlining of operations to improve the efficiency of food delivery to people who need it most. Ms. Dresner has spearheaded the creation of education, training and advocacy programs designed to help people transition from uncertainty to stability, and established a direct mobile-food-delivery service targeted at specific populations struggling with hunger. Her leadership and dedication has resulted in Island Harvest becoming one of the region’s lead agencies in food-banking, and in disaster-relief food and product distribution and support, as evidenced by the organization’s rapid response to Superstorm Sandy and other disasters. 

Ms. Dresner’s grasp of hunger and other social issues has made her the go-to source for the press and government leaders and, as a result, she serves on many state and local councils, including U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s New York State Agriculture Working Group and the Suffolk County Legislature Food Policy Council. She was also appointed by Governor Cuomo to serve on the Farmingdale State College Council. She is a member of the Energeia Partnership at Molloy College, and has twice been recognized as one of Long Island’s Top-50 Most Influential Women in Business by Long Island Business News. 

A native of East Meadow, she has two children, Rebecca and Stephen.