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Heather Anderson

Fresno, California
Conservation Chair
Tehipite Chapter

Pasadena native Heather Anderson joined the Sierra Club in the 1950s, right around the time she began climbing mountains. "I was introduced to backpacking by my first husband," she recalls happily. "Our honeymoon was a hiking trip in the Sierra Nevada, from Wolverton in Sequoia National Park, over Elizabeth Pass, and down into Kings Canyon. My husband didn't always stay on the trail, so I was introduced to the joys of cross-country hiking. And when we had children, we took them with us."

Wilderness has been Anderson's driving passion ever since. And for more than 50 years, she has combined this with two other loves: teaching and painting. With an M.A. already in hand, she went on to earn a Ph.D. in Art Education from the University of Oregon, where her dissertation was teaching students about the environment through art.

In 1986, Anderson accepted a teaching job in the art department at Fresno State University, where "I always encouraged my students to do some sort of environmentally related project." Her involvement with the Sierra Club grew as she rooted herself in her new adopted home, and she became Tehipite Chapter Chair in 1990. She volunteered as well with the San Joaquin River Conservation Trust, working with public school students. "They'd get bussed out to the river and I'd teach them awareness of the riparian environment and how to draw it: the wildlife, vegetation, and river. It is so important to get young people out into nature."

Published: December 8, 2006