Our Mission

Encarnación Cheryl Anderson is committed to working in service of her friends, family and neighbors. Using her grant writing expertise, and deep knowledge of systems-level thinking, she has effectively worked in K-12 public charter schools, community-based organizations, and two year Institutions of Higher Education. Cheryl graduated from Spelman College (Atlanta, GA), is an alumni Raoul Wallenberg Fellow (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), and attended graduate school at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Cheryl is a Fellow of the UnidosUS National Institute of Latino School Leaders program. 

 A unique individual with so many skill-sets he is known by many as a jack-of-all-trades. His educational background is in the culinary arts, although his expertise and passion for aquaponics grow system design stems from his knowledge of aquariums since childhood, growing plants indoors, and building a large-scale aquaponics demonstration system at Pueblo Central High School. He is a native Puebloan, family man, and a mentor providing student interns with direction for innovations and R&D of new growing systems. He is concerned about the future of our planet and believes his work at the IFIZ may be pivotal in shifting to a more sustainable paradigm locally. 

Comes to us with a BS degree in Recreation and Parks Management, with a Natural Resource Conservation emphasis. She joined IFIZ in Fall 2018, bringing 30+ years of environmental education, classroom teaching and special events experience. She has coordinated programs at nature centers, zoos, parks and recently served as a health department specialist promoting recycling, materials diversion and sustainability in the city and county of Pueblo. She is a Life Member of Girl Scouts USA, and has served on three environmental nonprofit boards.

A message from the President, Board of Directors: I am proud to be associated with the I Will Projects which has given me a platform to give back to my community. This is important because I agree with Chief Seattle that we are all interconnected through a web of life.

I am grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Alice Hill, writing two plays: one generated a scholarship and the other funding for our raptor center. We continue to write with the intention of supporting other projects The I Will Projects is developing.