April Anderson is Manager of Volunteer Programs at Zoo Atlanta. She has been with Zoo Atlanta five years as of January of this year! Prior to Zoo Atlanta she worked in an Art Museum Education department for approximately eight years managing volunteers for the entire Museum, teachers and art classes. She was also a volunteer with the American Red Cross in New Jersey from middle school until 2017 when she relocated to Georgia. April served as a volunteer supporting programs like Service to Armed Forces, Disaster Services, etc. Her main passion was supporting youth service and she served as a youth volunteer coordinator for many years helping to train high school students to become disaster volunteers and support their growth as leaders.
April's Volunteer Programs team (staff) at Zoo Atlanta is two full time persons, a Supervisor of Adult Volunteers and a Supervisor of Youth Conservation Leadership Volunteers (Teens and Interns). The Zoo's volunteer team is 350 active persons with another approximately 400 people who serve in an episodic fashion.
The volunteer program consists of eight different programs. They have volunteer opportunities available for ages 8 - adult. The team supports the Zoo through guest experience and educational means as well as through behind the scenes assignments like husbandry, maintenance, administrative roles and more.
The Zoo's programs have consistently been growing over the past few years and April am so proud to say we have returned to our pre-pandemic status. Her number of volunteers and number of service hours has rebounded, and they are off to a great start with 2023!
April's major focus for 2023 is recruitment! She have an overall initiative to grow and diversify our program participants. To accomplish this goal, she is looking for any and all ideas or suggestions on recruitment strategies. April is looking forward to being more involved with GAVA in the coming months.
