About Us

Dedicated and passionate describes the Ironwood Tree Experience Board of Directors to a tee. To ensure proper oversight and support of the ITE mission, the Board of Directors is required to meet quarterly in July, November, and March.

In addition to quarterly meetings, Board of Directors chair Board Committees and meet regularly as is necessary. Committees include: 1) Human Resources and Finances: 2) Youth Programming; 3) Development and Marketing; and 4) Governance.

Board of Director Meetings:

Unless specified otherwise, the Board of Directors generally meets from 5-7pm on the first Monday of each month at the Historic Y building – ITE Urban Field Station: 738 N 5th Ave, #103, Tucson, AZ 85705. 

Meeting details are posted on the ITE website in advance of the meeting date. Meetings are open to the public.

Board committee meetings are in addition to the regularly scheduled board of directors meetings and are scheduled to occur quarterly or as needed.

Important documents for the organization and Board of Directors are made available and posted on the ITE website. Such documents include meeting agendas and minutes, financials, and other reports. 

While meeting in person, Covid-19 precautions may be followed. Please view the updated Covid-19 Safety Guidelines. If pre-determined, virtual meetings may occur and a Google Meets link will be posted.

For more information, please contact Suzanne Dhruv at suzanne@ironwoodtreeexperience.org.

ITE Board of Directors

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Axhel Muñoz

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AXHEL MUÑOZ is a naturalist and dynamic environmental educator from the Sonoran Desert region. He has participated in a variety of projects as a research assistant ranging from pollination biology of an endangered species to intertidal plant-animal interactions. This provides him with a broad ecological perspective. In Puerto Rico he was involved in conservation research that led to the creation of the Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge. In California he co-founded the Rainforest Action Group at California State University, Fullerton. As vice-president and then president of the group he helped conservation projects in Costa Rica and Brazil and brought speakers such as Norman Myers and Daniel Janzen to the university. In Arizona he has worked for Oracle State Park, The Nature Conservancy, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum as an environmental educator for kids of all ages. He has created many science-based environmental curriculum based on the Sonoran Desert Region as a model. He has taught students from kindergarten to university, as well as designed and taught teacher workshops. He enjoys camping, snorkeling, tide pooling, birding, dancing Salsa, playing guitar or bongos, and getting together with friends.

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IngriQue Salt

IngriQue BoD

INGRIQUE “Q” SALT, Lók’aad Dine’é, is from Black Mesa and is the Project Coordinator for UA ITEP. Q also works with the UA School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences and the Miss Native American UA Ambassadors. Raised with a strong focus on traditional stories, prayer, and lifeways in her family, Q also accompanied her father in the mobilization of traditional healing practices. These perspectives provide a strong foundation upon which to advocate for and develop the structures necessary to help tribal community members develop, refine and attain their goals.

Q received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Cognitive Science, with a minor in American Indian Studies at the UA in 2015. During her time at the UA as a first-generation, Q was a Research Assistant studying, cancer pathways and exposures, uranium contaminated water, cognitive behavioral development and environmental health literacy development.

Q thrives on bringing community members together to identify issues and create community-based solutions. As Tribal Liaison for the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC) at the UA College of Pharmacy, Q focused on environmental health education, literacy, outreach and community-based projects in tribal communities of Arizona. During her time at SWEHSC, Q’s leadership increased Arizona tribal communities served from three of twenty-two tribes in Arizona to nine – a 200% increase. Further, four tribal communities have successfully developed Memorandums of Agreements to ensure tribes are partners in ongoing collaborative research.

ITEP’s value to create Nation-Builders for tribal communities strongly resonates with Q. As a Navajo Nation citizen, Q understands that to effectively advocate and develops skills in others, she must do so for herself. To this end, Q is developing her skills and knowledge to be an active Nation-Builder by pursuing her law degree in Indigenous People’s Law and Policy and the Environment.

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Josh Schachter

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JOSH SCHACHTER is a photographer, visual/digital storyteller and teaching artist, who believes “images are a powerful means of sharing stories that foster personal and community transformation.” Josh Schachter first discovered this as a Master’s student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where he taught photography to 9-12 year-old, at-risk girls.” Their honest imagery and stories forever transformed my understanding of how urban youth experience nature” Josh Schachter has conducted artist residencies which have varied from teaching photography in Spanish to Mexican-American women creating an oral history book about success to helping young Indian performance artists visually explore their lives in New Delhi to teaching digital storytelling to native youth on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. For several years Josh was the Director of Photography at the Tucson-based nonprofit Voices Inc., where he mentored low-income teenagers in documentary photography and managed an after-school youth magazine program. When Josh is not teaching, he works to photograph social and environmental issues for nonprofit organizations throughout the US. Josh Schachters images have been published internationally in books, magazines, newspapers, films and web sites, in venues ranging from the New York Times to the Navajo Times.

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Paul Bellows

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PAUL BELLOWS is the Ironwood Tree Experience board president and  founder and coach of “Be Good @ Doing Good,”​ Paul works with CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, executives and non-profit executive directors to help them achieve their mission and “Be Good at Doing Good” in their communities and around the planet. Paul’s specialties in Leadership, Talent and Organizational Development; Business Consulting; CEO & Executive Coaching; Strategist; Strategic and Business Planning; Facilitating Planning Retreats, Work Shops & Peer Advisory Groups serves ITE well and he is 100% devoted to helping Ironwood Tree Experience reach its potential staying true to the organization mission and vision.

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Corina Ontiveros

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CORINA TERESA ONTIVEROS is a Southwest native, public school educator, wife, and mother. She has been involved with public education in New Mexico and Arizona over the last 26 years. Working in urban and rural settings as both a teacher and a principal, she has been an ardent supporter of student empowerment throughout the years. Corina earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Secondary Education (History & English) at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico (from which she hails) and her Master’s in Education Leadership from Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona. Currently working as a Master Teacher in the Tucson Unified School District’s Department of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy & Instruction, she appreciates and values collaboration, innovation, and creativity as well as the energy that youth bring to our communities.

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Elena Preciado Martin

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ELENA PRECIADO MARTIN is an Oceanographer in the desert and a life-long Tucsonan. She believes that no matter where you live or who you are, you are you are connected to the ocean. Her passion is empowering youth to know their planet by providing them with opportunities to gain a sense of place through scientific inquiry, personal reflection, art and community action. For over 25 years she has been a science teacher, and environmental educator, guiding high school and college students to become keen observers, to ask questions and to deepen their knowledge of the world around them through research and exploration. Her favorite place to teach is in the field with a notebook in hand for observations, sketching and poetry.

Elena earned her BA in Biology and Spanish at Amherst College, her PhD in Biological Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, and her Secondary School Teaching Certification from Pima Community College. She has taught for Columbia University at the Biosphere 2 (Earth Semester), Prescott College at the Kino Bay Field Station, Pima Community College’s self-paced Biology learning lab and TUSD’s alternative education programs at Project MORE and ArtWorks. Most recently, she spent 13 years teaching Marine Science, Biology and Environmental Science at Tucson High Magnet School, where she helped establish and direct the school Sustainability Garden Club.

Elena also volunteers at the Mission Garden as a gardener and caretaker of the Mexican Garden, and for education outreach. She loves learning how to grow and harvest traditional foods in the desert in an ever changing climate, and sharing her fascination with the microscopic world of plankton in a drop of acequia water with adults and children alike. When she isn’t teaching she celebrates her bi-cultural Mexican-American/Irish-American roots with family through food, music and dance, playing her flute for Contra Dances and in the band “Grupo Tradiciones”. Vámonos!

Jeff Hartman BOD

Jeff Hartman

Jeff Hartman BOD

JEFF HARTMAN – Since moving to Tucson from Minnesota in 1998, Jeff Hartman has served as the Dean of Students at Columbia University’s Biosphere 2 Center, mediated EEO disputes for the United States Post Office, and worked as a teacher and school administrator at City High School and Nosotros Academy. He has served on several community boards, including the board of CEDO for many years. He has also published two novels and an educational children’s book on Coral Reefs for Biosphere 2. While at City High, he co-taught a CityWorks class with Eric and co-led two ITE trips to Costa Rica with Eric and Suzy. He holds a B.A. from the University of Oregon in biology and an M.A. from Western Washington University in Public Administration.
Jeff is no longer working a full-time job but does not think of himself as retired. He continues to mediate for the Post Office, look for ways to contribute to the Tucson community, is working on a couple new books, and is always looking forward to his next trip.

Ajang Deng

Ajang Deng

Ajang Deng

AJANG DENG –