Staff Spotlight: Chelsea Pfeifer
Each month, we highlight one of our incredible staff that makes the magic happen here at Austin Creative Reuse. This month, it’s Volunteer Facilitator and Reuse Specialist, Chelsea Pfeifer! Chelsea joined the ACR team last fall and has dived head first into many different roles with the organization! She leads volunteer groups with ease, represents us at community events both small and large, and processes through the thousands of pounds of donations we receive each week. Did we mention she does all this while being a full time student pursuing a master's degree!? Chelsea is an unstoppable force and we're grateful to have her on our team!
How did you find Austin Creative Reuse?
I attended a Reuse and Rethink Challenge after reading about it in the Chronicle. The challenge was to rethink bicycle tubes!
What’s your favorite part about working at ACR?
The purpose and the people! I'm inspired by the amazing creations that people make from the most obscure, random scraps of material. And I love my awesome, artistic coworkers :)
Are you an artist, crafter, or maker? What mediums do you work with?
I'm more of a crafter when the mood hits. Recently, I've gotten into linoleum block printing on paper & fabric. I've also been messing around with a wood burner.
What do you do when you’re not working at ACR?
I'm in grad school studying Social Work at UT. When I'm not at ACR, I'm catching up on readings, biking somewhere, or hitting the climbing gym.
What’s the craziest thing you found in donation mountain?
This is a hard one! A lot comes through, so it's hard to think of the most bizarre thing. What comes to mind is when we received a bunch of clown marionettes. I'm a sucker for weird puppets, so that's always exciting.
About Chelsea:
Chelsea loves to surround herself with creative and curious folks! While originally from PDX, she's lived in Chicago and Austin on-and-off for the past decade. While in Chicago, she operated and designed activities for a museum's teen sci-art makerspace. She's facilitated arts and craft activities for youth and their families in a variety of out-of-school programs and summer camps, including the Girl Scouts. She dabbles in zine-making, found art, and recently linocut printing and amateur puppetry. She's a Master of Science in Social Work Graduate student at University of Texas at Austin, and is drawn to the strong community heart of ACR.
