12 January 2021. - The Turks & Caicos Reef Fund (TCRF) is pleased to announce the hiring of its first full-time Executive Director. Alizee Zimmermann will start on 1 February 2021 as the first (and still only) paid employee of the 11-year-old organization.

“Alizee has been working with TCRF for over a year as our Project Manager for the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) treatment and education effort and I am pleased that she has agreed to come on board as our first Executive Director,” said Don Stark, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund. “Alizee has quickly become a regional leader and mentor on all aspects of SCTLD and is very enthusiastic about the mission of the TCRF.”

Alizee was born in Grand Turk and raised on Providenciales. Having grown up on, in, and under the water, she has a fervent passion for the ocean and specifically the marine environment of the TCI. She became a certified diver at the age of 12 and at the age of thirteen Alizee was part of the islands’ very first Junior National Park Program where her passion and understanding for the need for conservation was nurtured. She got to ‘break ground’ for the current Environmental Center and present a speech to members of government who were present on the need to protect our greatest asset. At fifteen she left the islands to further her education, receiving an International Baccalaureate Diploma before continuing on to The University of Edinburgh where, at the age of twenty-one she graduated with a Master’s of Arts with Honours in English Literature.

She returned home in late 2008 for a couple years before moving to China in 2011. For 5 years, Alizee worked as an English Language teacher abroad in China, Vietnam (where she also became a dive instructor), Spain & The Netherlands where she worked with varying levels and ages ranging from Primary to university professors looking to work abroad. She returned to the TCI in 2016 and has worked as a freelancer on various boats including the Aggressor Liveaboard. Alizee is also an illustrator and has collaborated on an educational children’s book called ‘Sarai Saves the Cay’ which was a TCI Government education and outreach project.

Since returning to the TCI, Alizee has volunteered for the TCRF and shown interest in furthering her marine education which led to TCRF sponsoring Alizee to attend an AGRRA Trainers Training program in The Bahamas in early-May 2018. Becoming an AGRRA Benthic Trainer gave Alizee the opportunity to start doing more meaningful work and collecting data on the health of the reefs. She partook in an expedition to East Caicos to survey all the reefs off that uninhabited island as a baseline study and has become more and more involved in helping with Environmental impact assessments leading her to work on a range of development projects.

“I am very excited about this opportunity to work with an organization which leads the way in TCI environmental advocacy and action,” said Mrs. Zimmermann. “I look forward to continuing the excellent work the organization has done to support conservation efforts in the TCI for the past eleven years.”

About TCRF

Founded in 2010, the Turks & Caicos Reef Fund is the only active environmental advocacy organization in the TCI. It is an organization that provides funding for education, research and conservation programs to individuals, organizations and agencies that help to preserve and protect the environment of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Our goal is to have at least 85% of all funds raised through voluntary contributions from divers and snorkelers visiting the Turks & Caicos Islands directed to the Fund’s programs.

Anyone wishing to donate or assist the TCRF in any way can contact them through their website, www.TCReef.org. Scuba divers visiting the islands are encouraged to make a $10 donation through the purchase of a dive tag that can be attached to their dive gear to show their support. Snorkelers visiting the islands can show their support through the $5 purchase of a pink or blue silicone wristband. Visitors can also support TCRF by purchasing a rash guard designed each year by a different local artist. A complete list of outlets for TCRF merchandise can be found on the organization’s website.