Trying Something New

Worlds away from the rigid and regimented high school curricula many American students are initiated into today, a number of high schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s were willing to try new things, and they cultivated this fearless attitude in their students. In the halls of one such D.C.-based institution, young Debra Moser watched a world of possibility unfold around her with each lesson and each assignment, fortifying a lifelong propensity for a grounding self confidence and an elevating ambition. “I hung with a very creative crowd, and our teachers encouraged us to try different things in the classroom, which led me to believe you could try different things in life,” she remembers. “I learned that it was okay to take chances in life and move beyond one straight and narrow path—that life itself can be a work of art, and that we have the agency and ability to apply our creativity to it and forge the kind of path we envision for ourselves.”

Debra’s creative vision has led her from the art world to the world of business, serving her just as well in her current entrepreneurial ventures as it did in her days as a high schooler who believed in dreaming big and doing good. “I’m a product of the do-good generation,” she remarks. “We never talked about making money when we were younger. My career has never been motivated by money, but instead by challenging myself and society to be better. How could I effect change somewhere? How could I impact people’s lives for the better? That was our focus.” Now the partner and cofounder of MeatCrafters, a boutique meats company in the D.C. metropolitan area, Debra’s work is succeeding in opening doors for the local community to try new things simply because she, herself, has always been willing to.

MeatCrafters produces specialty salamis, sausages, and other cured meats. The artisan food company was launched in 2008, the brainchild of Debra and her husband Mitch Berliner. Mitch had long worked to bring specialty and organic foods to the Washington, D.C. area, and when he decided to enact a career change, Debra encouraged him to follow his lifelong passion of making salami. With her business acumen added to the mix, the couple created MeatCrafters, and the new business began to take on a life of its own. Debra and Mitch partnered with Stan Feder, the President of Simply Sausage. Stan now heads up the charcuterie production, and Debra and Mitch have learned how to make salami with equipment purchased from Italy.

Each partner brings something unique to the table. As a chef, Stan perfected the art of making dried charcuterie and salami after studying techniques in France, Italy, and Spain. A fantastic salesman, Mitch has long been passionate about using his entrepreneurial drive to bring high-quality, local foods to the D.C. area, and Debra brings her skills in strategic marketing and planning, underscored by the creative flare she has expressed and nurtured all her life. That creativity proved especially crucial when the team first tested spices for their meats. Thanks to her suggestions and commitment to trying something new, the salamis are now flavored with Middle Eastern, Indonesian, and Spanish spices that aren’t found in run-of-the-mill salami. The meats stand out for their unique flavors and the “do good” business approach behind their production are sold at Debra and Mitch’s joint farmer’s market venture, Central Farm Markets.

Debra holds a pastry certification but had never worked in the meat business before launching MeatCrafters, so at first, she was understandably hesitant to take the leap into something so new, and especially into an industry with such high barriers of entry. Thanks to advice from Mitch, however, she found the courage to go all-in. “My husband encouraged me not to slam the door shut right away,” Debra explains. “When someone asks you to do something, say yes, even if you don’t know how to do it. Have the confidence in your capacity to learn, grow, and navigate the challenge.” Indeed, MeatCrafters has been a learn-as-you-go experience, but Debra’s fresh outlook, creative thinking, and willingness to say yes to new challenges have lent the venture a unique edge that sets it apart and has been crucial to its success.

Debra’s own success to date stems not only from the fact that she was willing to try new things, but more so because she insisted upon it. This commitment to innovation was nurtured in her from a young age, even before she enrolled in the unconventional high school that brought her creativity to new heights. Born in Albuquerque to an aeronautical engineer father and a schoolteacher mother, the family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, when she was nine months old, and she’s been in the D.C. area ever since.

When Debra was 15 years old, she got her first job working at a dress shop near her grandmother’s house. She worked all summer for $1.50 an hour, keeping her eye on a beautiful camel-colored coat displayed in the store. When September rolled around and her time at the shop came to an end, she was thrilled to see that her diligent savings had paid off and that she could afford to buy the dream coat. Hard work and fiscal responsibility have been hallmarks of her approach ever since, thanks in part to the day her father gave her a checkbook when she was 16. He showed her how to balance checks to the penny, underscoring the lessons of self-reliance and wisdom her parents had always modeled for her.

Debra’s parents and beloved grandmother also encouraged the creative thinking that came so naturally to their daughter. “My father was a photographer, so I kind of grew up in the darkroom,” she recalls. She also still remembers vividly a painting she did when she was five years old, and the feeling she had when her grandmother saw it and proclaimed, “This girl’s got talent!” In middle school, her parents enrolled her in art classes at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Debra loved going to the prestigious school every Saturday morning to paint and draw with the college students, and though her parents encouraged her passions, her decision to follow an artistic route was ultimately her own. She was given the freedom and flexibility to choose a path that suited her passions, with little pressure from her parents to go in any particular direction.

Free to follow her heart and her sense of what was right, Debra entered college at the University of Maryland as a set design major and later switched her degree to graphic design and photography, developing skills she still uses in her work today. Her first job out of college was a graphic design and art director position with Woodward & Lothrop, a department store chain headquartered in Washington. She took the position as a chance to grow her skills by paying attention and thinking creatively, and when she was given the opportunity to hire photographers for the company, she brought in the very best professionals from around the world. “I wanted people I could really learn from,” she says.

Debra left Woodward & Lothrop when her first son was born, but after six months as a stay-at-home mom, she found she felt too restless when she wasn’t making things happen in the workplace. With that, she went back to the University of Maryland to pursue a degree in secondary education, fulfilling her passion for working with teenagers through teaching photography and computer science courses. “I wanted to make a difference in teenagers’ lives the same way my high school teachers had made a difference in mine,” she explains.

As Debra transitioned from participating in the arts to teaching the arts, she was surprised to discover a natural affinity for leadership. “I found that I really liked being in charge of something, keeping it running and making things happen,” she recalls. “I saw a side of me that was good at managing, networking, putting people together, and building relationships. For the first time, I realized I was interested in business.”

With that, Debra enrolled in Johns Hopkins University’s graduate business program with a focus on strategic planning and marketing, keeping her job as a teacher on the side. “I was drawn to marketing and strategy because of the creativity involved,” she affirms. “To me, it’s just like art. You’re creating something new—a different kind of picture of the direction you want to take a company.” Through that time, Debra found herself teaching during the day, attending school at night, and raising two children.

When she successfully earned her MS in Business, Debra experienced a defining shift in consciousness, realizing that she could probably succeed at anything she set her mind to. She continued teaching at Johns Hopkins for eleven years, and as she pursued more ventures, she found that she most loved jobs that combined teaching and training. She ran a paramedic education program at George Washington University for several years before working in consulting for several more. Then, when the Rockville arts organization, VisArts, offered her a position as interim Executive Director, she agreed to a fifty percent pay cut to pursue a professional path that was highly aligned with the passions she had cultivated since her earliest years.

“The art center was in the basement of a grocery store, and one day, the City of Rockville claimed eminent domain and said they were taking back the space,” she recounts. “I said they couldn’t do that, and that they should instead help us relocate to the new town center they were building.” The center did, in fact, have a 28,000 square foot building with some potential, so Debra set her mind to writing a 100-page business plan. All in all, the venture engulfed over three of the ten years she worked for VisArts, but in the wake of the move, she succeeded in turning the organization around and tripling its budget—thanks, in part, to the tradition of fiscal responsibility in which she was raised. Also during her time at VisArts, Debra married Mitch.

When Debra left VisArts in 2008, she was flooded with letters from people from all over the county, thanking her for the difference she had made in the community and offering her words of encouragement for whatever her career held next. Thanks in part to these kind words, she was ready to put her skills to the ultimate creative test, and after working together on Central Farm Markets, the couple decided to launch MeatCrafters. Debra had always wanted to run her own business and be her own boss. “I had never had the opportunity to work for myself, so I wanted to take all of my career skills and see if I could apply them to something that would be my own,” she says. “I wanted to try something new and see if I could rise to the challenge.”

Alongside the burgeoning success of MeatCrafters, Central Farm Markets started with 15 vendors in the spring of 2008 and has since grown to over 100 vendors and three locations, with six employees working behind the scenes to run operations as Debra handles marketing and events and Mitch covers much of the logistical work. With a division of MeatCrafters specially geared toward the market, and another division focusing on wholesale, Debra and Mitch are essentially growing three entities, yet these many responsibilities don’t discourage her from serving on the boards of several charities and organizations. Her greatest philanthropic passion, however, is having the opportunity to speak to women’s groups. “I talk about how your life moments influence your career choices, and what to do when you decide to change your career, whether you’re 22 or 50,” she says. “I ask people what it is they’ve always wanted to do, and I tell them to go out and do it.”

It’s always a challenge to balance career and family, but amidst her professional accomplishments and volunteer work, Debra has managed to devote time to her husband, children, and now, her grandchildren. Indeed, the impact of her work expands beyond the deepening culture and food choices of the D.C. metropolitan area, blazing a trail for others—like her own grandchildren—to take risks without fear and push the limits of their own skill set to create the path that’s right for them.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Debra emphasizes the importance of following your passion and being open to change. “Don’t focus on the money,” she says. “Follow your heart. You’ll probably change careers three or four times, and that’s okay. Don’t be afraid to try something new.” From those early days working in the clothing boutique, to teaching college students, to building up an organization, to running her own business, Debra’s career has shown that creativity, flexibility, and hard work are the keys to a fulfilling career, and to living life on one’s own terms. “In my career, sometimes I’d worry about where I was going,” she recalls. “Now I’m in a place where I can see where I’ve been, and I wouldn’t change a thing. And there’s still so much for us to do. I can’t imagine a life where I’m not working toward something and trying new things.”

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