Dresser, a Katy ISD police officer, won the
competition May 12 and will compete for the Miss United States 2017 title in Florida in July. Her first pageant was the Miss Wa’ahila 2009 competition while she was attending the University of Hawaii.The California native, already a competitive baton twirler and part of the university’s marching band, said she was rusty when it came to performing and entered the pageant as a way to practice being on stage before her next baton twirling competition.
“It was a huge shock but it really was the beginning,” she said.
Dresser moved to Katy in 2015. She said one reason she continues to do pageants is how competition motivates her in general.
“I’m more competitive with myself than anything else,” she said.
She also said she likes using her platform as a pageant winner to bring awareness to causes she believes in, particularly mentoring. She mentored while in college, and as a KISD officer she participates in the school district’s Keep Encouraging Youth Toward Success, or KEYS, program as well as Teens and Police Service Academy, or TAPS.
The program is designed to bridge the gap between law enforcement and at-risk youth, which Dresser said is helpful for KISD’s students who may have criminal histories or other behavioral issues. In addition, Dresser has thrown her support behind Katy Students Run, a nonprofit group that aims to mentor children through running.“My passion is to mentor and help people, and that’s what is so important,” she said.
In preparation for the national competition, Dresser said she has to keep fit and has some people helping her with her wardrobe, make-up and other tasks. But of the six weeks she has left to get ready, three of them will include an entirely different kind of training.
“[It is] a little bit of trying to get my life situated because I just got promoted to K-9,” she said of her police job. “[I have] five to six weeks to prepare for [the] competition and during three of them I will do the K-9 training.”
