Meet Colleen Dietz

SOUL Rescuer. Animal Advocacy Educator. Dog Shelter Emancipator. Colleen’s favorite times are playing with rescued big cats and birds of prey, but she also loves the challenge of rescuing working dog breeds and raising wildlife orphans . When not rescuing, she can be found glove training Thunder the bald eagle, practicing mounted archery with her horse/soul sister Prophecy or empowering middle schoolers to advocate on behalf of those without a voice. She is working to unite her passion for helping animals and teens through S.O.U.L. - Saving Our Underdogs Lives. She was part of a team that won awards from the Obama administration for an environmental program that included saving energy and providing wildlife habitats on their school campus.

Q+A

What do you geek out about?

Nature. All of it. As exciting as it is to work with apex predators, it is just as soul-satisfying to just go get lost in the woods or watch a sisterhood of bees communicate and cooperate to gather nectar.

What is your favorite song?

“Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. When I was in school, I mostly listened to hardcore music, but loved to listen to jazz and blues when no one was around. That song still sums up my simple world view.

Favorite quote?

“Action is eloquence.” -Shakespeare, from Coriolanus

What’s the best advice you have ever given?

Everyone makes mistakes, just keep going. It took me until my late thirties to accept this advice for myself, and I can see how much fear of failure or disapproval has shaped my past choices. I hope to impart to my students that mistakes are a part of the design process. Embrace. Them.

What is the greatest purchase you have ever made?

I bought a place on 5 acres in the middle of nowhere to start my own animal rescue. Everything about the move has been coming together as if the universe has something in mind. It really has an unbelievable karmic flow the way it is all falling in place. Pure magic. Ideally it will become a place to help both animals and children.

Want more? Follow Wrede’s Wildlife Center on Facebook. Follow Colleen on Facebook. Follow SOUL on Instagram.

Photo by: Neal Golden