Editor’s note: FlexPack VOICE® has featured workers of the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) in a series of short profiles since 2022. FPA hired Kyla Fisher as the director of regulatory affairs and sustainability in 2025.
Fisher grew up in Canada, moving to the United States about 14 years ago for her spouse’s career.
“Arriving in Arizona in August was a shock to the system,” she says. “Although we have adjusted over the years, we still try to escape the summer heat with a month of remote work from extended family homes across Canada.”
After college at the University of King’s College in Canada, Fisher worked for the G-8 Summit in 2002, where Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, gave a speech about the role of business to drive social and environmental good.
“I was immediately hooked on the concept,” says Fisher, who went on to get a master’s degree at Carleton University in Ontario. “There were no sustainability degrees back then, so I did a master’s in international relations and focused on sustainability in the petroleum sector.”
She transitioned into packaging by accident, she adds.
“After moving to the U.S. and trying to figure out where I fit, I was on a weekend hiking trip when I met a fellow hiker trying to understand what Walmart was doing with the Sustainability Consortium and packaging assessments,” she says. “After explaining it to him, I was quickly offered a role at a paperboard converter.”
At first, she continues, she was skeptical of packaging.
“As I dug into it, I realized that packaging and waste issues are the basis of so many sustainability issues—from food waste concerns to equity and plastic pollution. And there’s so much opportunity here,” she explains.
An interest in regulations and legislation came later, after she realized there is often a disconnect between what legislation is proposed and what is needed.
“I believe being able to translate science and data into legislative and regulatory action is a valued service that helps avoid unintended consequences,” Fisher says.
FlexPack VOICE®: Tell us a bit more about your career path and how you ended up at FPA?
Kyla Fisher: For the past decade, I have worked as a contractor with various associations: the Sustainable Packaging Coalition; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Flexible Film Recycling Alliance (FFRA); and AMERIPEN—American Institute for Packaging and the Environment. This diversity helps provide a holistic perspective on the challenges facing different materials and value chain partners, as well as our shared goals to recognize that packaging offers social and environmental value.
FPV: What do you see as the primary responsibilities for your job and how do you go about doing them?
KF: I believe much of my job revolves around stakeholder engagement. Being able to listen, gather feedback, and distill information to organizations across the packaging value chain is how we make progressive changes. It is not enough to respond and defend flexible packaging; we must also understand the pain points faced by recyclers, governments, and end-users. And then, we need to work together to identify solutions or, at a minimum, to be able to explain the challenges we face as well as the unintended consequences that could occur if we can’t find a resolution.
In my role at FPA, I want to further build our reputation for collaboration and data-driven advocacy. When we submit regulatory comments, I want to ensure states are already familiar with us—because we have been involved in the working group—and they see our letters as insightful and full of useful data. I want us to be able to offer strategies and solutions early in the process so we are not in a position of defending and protecting but rather of cocreating rules and processes.
FPA has working groups such as the Sterilization Packaging Manufacturers Council (SPMC®), which provides guidance and insights to international organizations like ASTM International. There are many more opportunities to promote their efforts—and those of our other working groups—to help FPA be seen as technical and legislative advisers who are recognized for their forward-thinking approach.
FPV: What do you like best and what are some of the challenges going forward?
KF: I really enjoy the strategy piece of this role: trying to anticipate where flexible packaging is going and what consumers and legislators are worried about, and then working with the stakeholders to identify opportunities and challenges before they arise.
For example, in my past role at AMERIPEN, we identified the need for recycling market development to grow opportunities for harder-to-recycle materials such as flexible films. At that time, the most successful organizations working in this space were state recycling market development centers, so we established a working group to listen to and understand what they needed and how the packaging industry could assist. This led to research on topics such as demand, supply, and capacity studies based on corporate goals, which provides valuable data when assessing funding needs.
This working group also opened the door to relationships in a few states that have since passed extended producer responsibility. They approached us early in the process to help guide the legislative language because we had established trust by engaging with them early and without a direct request. Instead, we had shown them that we wanted to hear what they needed.
As it relates to FPA, I’m still early in my learning curve, but as paper-based flexibles grow, I see an opportunity here for us to gather data on recycling these packaging formats. When states start to evaluate them for statewide recycling lists, we can offer immediate insights.
FPV: What do you like to do when you are not working?
KF: My husband is handy with tools, so we are on our second home renovation in the last decade. I’ve become quite skilled at drywall installation and installing wood flooring. When we’re not working on the house or running our kids to activities, we love to hike, bike, and camp.
FPV: Any hobbies, interests? Favorite sports teams, those sorts of things?
KF: I just started swimming with a masters swimming group. It’s a return to my childhood days, when I was on the swimming team. I hope to get back into triathlons in a few years—after the house renovations are done.
FPV: Anything that you would like to say about your family?
KF: I have two kids, 13 and 10, and a ridiculous golden retriever. There’s nothing better than coming home from a work trip to boundless hugs from all of them. I imagine, as we get further into their teen years, that might decrease, although never from the dog.