Volunteer Profile: Stefanie Berganini

Andean Textile Arts (ATA) runs 100% on the efforts of dedicated volunteers—individuals like Stefanie Berganini, who was the driving force behind the recent launch of our new and improved web site.

Stefanie is no stranger to web design as well as the textile arts and their importance in the world’s cultures. She spent several years at Interweave Press, first as an intern with Fiber Arts magazine, then assistant editor of Spin-Off, and finally as managing editor of Stitch. After she left Interweave, she worked in the non-profit world until she opened her own freelance marketing and graphic design business. Today, Stefanie is pursuing a new career: she recently completed her master’s degree in anthropology and is now working on a PhD in ecosystem sustainability at Colorado State University. Oh, and in her limited spare time, she also sews, knits, weaves, and crochets.

Stefanie and some of her hand-knits in front of Skógafoss, in Iceland.

I volunteer with Stefanie on Andean Textile Arts’ marketing committee and see first-hand the expertise and fresh ideas she so generously offers to forward the ATA cause. Despite her ultra-busy schedule, she somehow manages to take on and deliver big projects for ATA. Just one example of her contributions is the new website.

“I wanted to make the website more modern and much easier for people to navigate to find out what ATA is all about,” she says. But her website work didn’t stop there. In addition to a site that is easy on the eyes and more functional for its visitors and donors, Stefanie used her knowledge of web tools to recommend and implement the site’s underlying structure. The result is a lower cost, easier to manage website—key to helping ATA keep administrative expenses as low as possible.

In addition to the website, Stefanie also is the graphic designer behind our quarterly newsletter. In fact, it was the newsletter that first connected her to the ATA mission. Stefanie knew several ATA board members from her time at Interweave and had stayed in touch with them after she left the company. When they needed an updated ATA newsletter design, they turned to Stefanie as the perfect person for the job.

Looking forward, Stefanie said there’s much more that she’d like to do to help “spread the word about the great things ATA is doing.” Why is she so passionate about her ATA participation?

“I really like the people involved (in ATA) and I know they do good work,” she explains. “And as both an anthropologist and a fiber person, I love textiles. They are such a universal piece of culture and we can learn so much from them.”

For Stefanie, her volunteer work is also about the many women who are positively impacted by ATA’s support. Not only does she feel connected to these women through their craft, she also knows her efforts are helping to preserve a way of life these women can depend on.

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