Founder and Executive Director: Andrea Arel

The founder and executive director of Hopeandknowledge.org is Andrea Arel. The motivation for starting this non-profit organization comes from Andrea studying the environmental movement in Utah and seeing what was needed. Bringing together organizations and providing an educational forum comes easy to Andrea.

Andrea is an alumni of Prescott College (class of '86), a liberal arts college in Arizona. Her major was Environmental Education. She was a recipient of the James Stuckey Scholarship for self-direction and a member of the board of directors of Prescott College.

Determined to do something environmental, in 1989 Andrea studied recycling and energy efficient products and systems for lighting and air conditioning. After learning the conditions needed for recycling, the items, the system, and the organizations in place, Andrea started "Resource Recovery", a recycling education and waste reduction program for large businesses, restaurants and hotels.

In 1991 Santa Fe County in New Mexico liked what they saw in this program and persuaded Andrea to join their team as the "Solid Waste Resource Specialist". Andrea managed the recycling/solid waste program for Santa Fe County, which included transfer stations and reuse areas in the county dump. She met with the seven Indian Nations in Santa Fe county to discuss possible solutions to their solid waste issues. Andrea became a state wide speaker for implementing or restructuring recycling programs. At this same time Andrea became the president of the Keep America Beautiful program in Santa Fe County.

In 1994 Andrea moved and restarted "Resource Recovery" in Miami Florida where she was hired to study the solid waste issues for the Miami International Airport and to develop their plan for recycling and waste reduction. This plan included all the vendors in the airport, the airlines, food services, newspapers and magazine suppliers, the hotel, the offices, the incinerator, and what was hauled to the landfill. This research and waste management plan clearly showed where all the waste was generated, improperly handled, how it could be better handled, how it was disposed and how it could be diverted from the incinerator and landfill.

A change in governmental policies and philosophies as well as pressures from commercial waste management companies had a dampening effect on the environmental businesses in 1995. This led Andrea to pursue other interests until now.

Andrea has been an entrepreneur from her early years of recycling bottles for a nickel and mowing lawns to being a successful massage therapist. She understands business, people, politics and the environment.

Andrea's strengths lie in her ability to research extensively, to network effectively and to market and organize groups under an umbrella of caring. Her enthusiasm, energy and spirit will be a key component in the success of Hopeandknowledge.org