Craig Dresang
For the past 11+ years, Craig Dresang has served as CEO of YoloCares, one of the first established end-of-life care providers on the West Coast.
Under his leadership, the agency has been nationally ranked (4X) as a "BEST PLACE TO WORK" by Modern Healthcare. In addition, the most recent quality-of-care scores collected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid place YoloCares in the top 5% of all 1700 hospice providers in California. In 2024, YoloCares secured a $3million grant from the State of California to emerge as an Enhanced Care Management provider. The agency also created the first community-based palliative care program in Northern California to achieve Joint Commission Accreditation. And, in 2020, the organization built and opened Galileo Place, a Five-Star, one-of-a-kind, adult day program in Davis, CA.
Craig is a columnist for the Davis Enterprise, contributing author of "END-OF-LIFE ETHICS IN A CHANGING WORLD (published by the Hospice Foundation of America), and Board Treasurer for the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California. Recently, YoloCares secured its second $1 million grant from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to better understand and address barriers to care for rural and indigenous populations.
During his three decades in hospice and palliative medicine he has chaired the Nonprofit Hospice Coalition of Northern California and raised $50 million for the design and construction of four hospice residences in the Chicago area. Over the span of his career, Craig has helped secure $500 million in funding for both capital and programming projects in higher education, social services, healthcare, and the arts. Nearly $100 million has been raised specifically for ARTS programs in healthcare settings, museums, schools and universities, and city government. Much of this work came to fruition through collaborations with dozens of arts organizations including Chicago's Harris Theatre, the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Lyric Opera, Human Rhythm Project, Giordano Jazz Dance, Chicago Botanic Gardens, and the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus.
Prior to settling in California in 2014, Craig received a mayoral appointment to serve as Chairman of the Cultural Arts Commission for eight years in Elgin, IL (Chicago area), and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Illinois Arts Council as a panelist and grant reviewer for the State's Arts-In-Education Residency Program. At the time, he also served as President of the Board for Elgin Opera. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from the Wisconsin-Whitewater and an MDiv. from Moody Theological Seminary. He has been a frequent guest instructor and lecturer at both the Kellogg School of Management and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
