Anne Hallum, Founder of Alliance for International Reforestation

CNN Hero Anne Hallum was a political science professor at Stetson University in Florida when she was asked to take a group of students on a volunteer trip to Guatemala. It was 1991 and she was going through a difficult personal time of loneliness and loss. The trip to Guatemala was her first time out of the country–and that trip changed everything for Anne.

The hunger, malnutrition, and barren mountainsides haunted Anne. The trip inspired her to start the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR). Anne and AIR worked tirelessly for the last two decades to improve human and environmental health in Guatemala.

They have planted more than 4.2 million trees throughout Central America.

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Show Notes for Anne Hallum

• Anne’s experience becoming a CNN Hero
• Anne’s very first trip to Guatemala
• Her grant writing strategy
• Foundation Center
• Anne’s thoughts on managing international volunteers
• How she met her first staff members
• Anne’s relationship with the Rainbow Cafe in Antigua, Guatemala
• Why Anne hires Guatemalans as staff members
• Servant Leadership
• Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken
• “Somos un equipo” – We’re a team
• The self doubts that Anne battled during the first year
• How she financed AIR during the first six months
• Her “weakness”
• How Anne created a division of labor within her team
• Goal displacement
• Anne’s hardest moment with AIR
• How Anne builds relationships with her donors
• The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security by Eric Toensmeier
• What Anne is looking for from potential interns