International Women’s Day 2026
March 8 is International Women’s Day! Join Eco-Cycle in celebrating the achievements of women all over the world with a series of spotlights featuring women on our staff who do it all, from fundraising to directing a materials recovery facility, to consulting on state recycling policy, to educating the next generation of eco-stewards.
This March 8, International Women’s Day, Eco-Cycle celebrates the talented and dedicated women helping lead the work to curb climate change and protect the planet for future generations. To highlight their voices, we asked six women on our staff three questions about their professional journeys with Eco-Cycle.
Sadie Gardner
oversees the Boulder County Recycling Center, also known as a MRF (Materials Recovery Center).
Job title: MRF Director
Amount of time working at Eco-Cycle: 6+ years
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Recycling is a tangible thing we can do collectively to move toward our sustainability goals. I’m lucky to be able to see it processed and shipped to mills on a daily basis. Just as important is the people I work with that make it happen- they are smart, hardworking and understand what a team really is.
How about the most challenging part?
Trying to keep up with all the literal and figurative moving parts- equipment, machinery, optical sorters, and of course the most valuable component, the people. I’m balancing the fast moving pace of the plant while also running the business side and ensuring material gets to its proper end market so it can be made into a new product.
If you could have a conversation over coffee with any woman, living or dead, who would that be and what would you ask her?
Michelle Obama. I’d ask “as a career mom working in what is still a very male dominated industry, what advice would you give me?”
Tina DeLisa
instills wonder and love for the earth in students while giving them lifelong actions that help keep the earth in mind with all their current and future endeavors.
Job title: Environmental Education Teacher
Amount of time working at Eco-Cycle: 8 years
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
The most rewarding part of my job is students connecting to and retaining information from our lessons. It is the absolute best when a student sees me at one of their Zero Waste evening or weekend events and tells me about something they did, or saw, or read that connects to part of an Eco-Cycle lesson.
How about the most challenging part?
The most challenging part is fitting all the incredible information and actions you want to teach students into an engaging concise lesson that fits into the allotted class time and curriculum. Thank goodness for our incredible schools’ team doing deep dives and working together to create environmental education lessons that not only fit the time we have with students but also meet the standards of each grade level, PK-12.
If you could have a conversation over coffee with any woman, living or dead, who would that be and what would you ask her?
I would love to have coffee with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I would ask her what she thinks about the situations we are currently faced with and how she would recommend that we overcome them.
Rachel Setzke
works on state and local Zero Waste policies and programming, helping communities and Colorado improve recycling, composting, and waste reduction.
Job title: Senior Policy Advisor
Amount of time working at Eco-Cycle: I started as an grad-school intern in August 2019, as an employee in March 2020.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
I love getting to learn about what is happening around our state and country around recycling, composting, and reuse, and then using that knowledge to leverage opportunities and create solutions for Colorado that will help build recycling and reuse systems and rebuild our soil health through compost.
How about the most challenging part?
There are so many policies and programs our team works on or would like to work on around recycling, hard to recycle materials, reuse, waste reduction, organics diversion and the use of compost, there is never enough time or capacity to address all of the issues we’d like to!
If you could have a conversation over coffee with any woman, living or dead, who would that be and what would you ask her? I am incredibly fortunate to get to connect with women working in this field both at Eco-Cycle and through the state and national groups I participate in! I am constantly inspired by these women and learning from them. I hope to continue meeting with them over Zooms, calls, and tea (I’m a tea-drinker) where I will continue to ask them, what are you excited to be working on and how can we work together to make the world a better place?
Audrey Wheeler
help communities around Colorado advance toward their waste diversion goals.
Job title: Senior Consulting Manager
Amount of time working at Eco-Cycle: 1.5 years
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
I get to be part of the incremental progress being made across Colorado toward increasing recycling, composting, and Zero Waste efforts. Communities are taking advantage of new state programs and funding, and a lot of positive changes are happening.
How about the most challenging part?
Encountering naysayers who think it’s not worth it to recycle or compost, and trying to calmly present convincing arguments.
If you could have a conversation over coffee with any woman, living or dead, who would that be and what would you ask her?
I’d like to talk to Robin Wall Kimmerer, who has written several books about healing our relationship to the world using Indigenous wisdom. I would ask her about how she keeps up hope in dark times.
Lex Shannon
leads outreach and engagement efforts at Eco-Cycle, overseeing the Eco-Leader Network and connecting Colorado residents with Zero Waste resources.
Job title: Public Education and Engagement Senior Manager
Amount of time working at Eco-Cycle: 10 months (1 year in May!)
If you could have a conversation over coffee with any woman, living or dead, who would that be and what would you ask her?
Rachel Carson, fellow Gemini and mother of the modern environmental movement. My question: how the heck was she able to stay so positive, inquisitive, and kind despite societal norms and industry trying so hard to discredit her work?
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
I am constantly learning from everyone involved in Eco-Cycle! We have the most passionate and creative base of supporters that inspire me to keep fighting during these difficult times.
How about the most challenging part?
Convincing others that recycling does work and it is only one of many tools at our disposal to conserve natural resources as we transition to a more circular system!
Anna Leske
fundraises to provide support for Eco-Cycle’s Zero Waste programming.
Job title: Senior Advancement Officer
Amount of time working at Eco-Cycle: 3 years
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
I love connecting with people who share our enthusiasm and dedication to building a Zero Waste future!
How about the most challenging part?
There are so many worthy causes to support, especially in the uncertain times we’re all living through. It sometimes feels like resources are spread thin, but there truly is so much support in our community.
If you could have a conversation over coffee with any woman, living or dead, who would that be and what would you ask her?
I would absolutely love the opportunity to speak with one of my favorite authors, Octavia Butler. Some people call her prescient, but I think she was just really adept at understanding systems. I’d love to ask her advice on how to effectively and joyfully build community in times of struggle and uncertainty.
