I’ve always known that I wanted to help animals but didn’t quite know how until I visited Best Friends Animal Society in Utah while I was in college. I spent some time talking to the staff, and learned about how much of a need there was for business-minded people like me in the animal rescue world.

As I returned to school and dove deeper into the world of nonprofit management, fundraising, public relations, marketing, and operations, I couldn’t get enough and knew I had found the right fit!

I have been working my whole life towards the goal of eventually stepping into an Executive Director role, and I hoped that it would be for an animal rescue organization. So you can imagine how honored and excited I am to be here at Brother Wolf. Even though this work is hard, it feels exhilarating because we’re working together to make real change — change that saves lives!

After stepping into this new role, a number of people have said “I would never be able to do that work. It’s too sad.” And I can see where they are coming from. Can this work be sad and heartbreaking? Absolutely. But do the triumphs and miraculous transformations far outweigh that? Absolutely! I understand that it can be tough to see a dog or cat who is living in a shelter instead of the home they deserve. But I invite you to come here, meet them, and remember that because of the work our community has done together, these animals have been saved. They are the lucky ones.

If you just stay here a bit, you’ll also see the most joyous things. You’ll see volunteers who come multiple times a week to take our dogs hiking in the mountains. You’ll see a family choose to adopt a pair of senior bonded cats who our adoption coordinators have worked hard to keep together. You’ll see our dedicated behavior and enrichment team members work magic (seriously!) with challenged dogs who someone else might have given up on. You’ll see a foster parent swoop in to take a mother and her newborn kittens home to a quiet room that has been set up just for them. You’ll meet animals who lived for years in hoarding situations, or at the end of a chain — and you’ll see big goofy smiles on their faces now that they are safe and loved. Brother Wolf changed the course of their lives forever. We did this together.

And together, we can save even more. In 2019, we’ll be embracing our roots of companion animal rescue and our core mission of building No-Kill communities. We’ll be strengthening relationships with other rescue organizations so that we can all best use the resources among us to make the most impact. We’ll be improving our procedures to ensure the longevity of the organization. We’ll be building our board of directors to add members who have the skill sets and passions that will best lead us to the future we want for the animals. There is so much good work to be done!

One thing that has always amazed me is how animals have an incredible ability to forgive, recover, and move forward. We have some of that work to do ourselves. It’s not an easy road we have laid out ahead of us, but challenges are exciting and I know there is so much possibility here. I look forward to working side by side with you to make this world a better place for animals.