Renee Fajardo 

Dr. Renee Fajardo ia a mother of seven and cultural activist who has spent the past 30 years preserving and promoting the Latino/Mestizo culture of Colorado through her work as a storyteller and writer.  She has co-authored numerous books in the Tummy Tales series (Holy Mole Guacamole plus seven others) that preserve family food traditions of Colorado.  She has collected hundreds of articles about Chicano/Hispanic culture, historic insights of Colorado.  She is the co-founder of the Return of the Corn Mothers project, a national traveling exhibition, which highlights women's stories from the Southwest.  Since 2010 she has been the director of the Metropolitan State University's CHS Journey Through Our Heritage program, a program that places university students of color with local high schools and middle schools to serve as mentors.