advisory board
Elaine Adair
Elaine Adair, a founder and President of Mississippi Spay and Neuter (MS SPAN) and Vice President of Operations for Big Fix Clinic, is a consultant for establishing nonprofit animal organizations and for administrative processes and services. Elaine has first-hand experience in coalition-building in the opening of Mississippi SPAN, an organization which has spearheaded animal welfare efforts in Mississippi and is used as a model for serving chronic poverty. She also has a background in the administrative support necessary for needs assessment, organizational development, and strategic planning that has extended over a 20 year profession starting with the United States Air Force and ending with an early retirement from Lockheed Martin Corporation and the Air National Guard. She has mentored statewide spay neuter programs throughout the nation and is a guiding force in the coalition of state spay neuter referral programs.
​
Elaine graduated with Distinction from University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Distributive Studies: Communication, Theatre, English and Psychology and from Southern College of Technology with a Master’s Degree in Technical and Professional Communications.
​
Elaine and her husband live in Vicksburg, MS with their precious pets and stray cats, all of whom survived the wrath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
William "Bill" Edwards
William “Bill” C. Edwards is the retired Director of the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (OADDL) and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Surgery of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oklahoma State University (OSU). He is currently owner/manager of Edwards Envirotox Consulting LLC.
Dr. Edwards received his DVM degree from Kansas State University and the MS degree in Physiology and Pharmacology from Iowa State University.
After clinical practice in Missouri and Iowa he became certified by the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology (ABVT) and taught Toxicology and Pharmacology at OSU for many years and one semester at Ross University in the West Indies. He mentored several veterinarians toward Diplomate status by the ABVT.
Dr. Edwards brings an in-depth understanding of physiology to our research team.
Brenda Griffin, DVM, MS, DACVIM
Brenda Griffin, Adjunct Associate Professor of Shelter Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, is a nationally recognized pioneer of pediatric spay neuter. She worked in general small animal practice as well as in animal shelters before pursuing a small animal internal medicine residency at Auburn University. She became board certified in this specialty in 2000. Dr. Griffin has served as an assistant professor directing clinical programs in shelter medicine at the veterinary college at Auburn University and later at Cornell. Dr. Griffin consults with shelters throughout the United States while providing both clinical and classroom instruction to veterinary students and post-graduate residents. She joined the faculty at the University of Florida to support their new residency-training program and has joined forces with the National Spay Neuter Response Team of Humane Alliance to develop educational tools for veterinarians in state-of-the- art techniques for spaying and neutering cats and dogs.
​
Dr. Griffin was a founding member of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs in 2000, the recipient of the AVMA’s Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year Award in 2003 and was named by PetSmart Charities as a national spay-neuter mentor in 2006. Dr. Griffin has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians since 2004 and the Veterinary Task Force to Advance Spay Neuter since 2006. She is a regular columnist for Animal Sheltering Magazine. She and her husband share their home with 6 dogs, 5 cats and 2 goats. Her lifelong hobby is dog training.
Judy King
Judy King, owner of Judy King Interiors of Princeton, NJ is an award winning interior designer for clients in NJ, NY, PA, IL, FL, and Washington DC. Judy King is a founding member of the National Arts Program, based in Philadelphia, a program that identifies, showcases and rewards visual artistic talent in America in 38 states and 87 sponsored venues.
​
Her non-profit commitments include:
​
- SAVE, Friends of Homeless Animals, Board Member and Benefit Committee member
- Trinity Counseling Service, Bastille Day Ball Committee
- Homefront, Benefit Committee
- Corner House, Committee Member
- Trenton Children’s Chorus, ONE VOICE Committee
- Junior League Showhouses, Selected Designer
- Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Annual Fundraiser
- Arts Council of Princeton, Pinot to Picasso Benefit Committee - - New York Academy of Art, Founding Member 1998-2000
- University of Pennsylvania International House, Benefit Committee 1984-1985
Quita Mazina
Quita Mazina is the Executive Director of Humane Alliance, the world’s premier training center for high volume spay neuter techniques.
​
Mazzina pioneered the movement to strategize spay neuter programs so that the services are created upon a platform of financial sustainability; indeed she brought the word sustainable into the spay/ neuter movement. Mazzina has proven that high volume spay neuter programs can reduce shelter intakes and keep pets in their homes while sustaining themselves through program fees.
​
Mazzina developed a transport program which enables communities to utilize a clinic within their region while helping a clinic to achieve intake numbers which support sustainability.
Esther Mechler
Esther Mechler is the founder and President of Marian’s Dream. Her areas of expertise include grassroots organizing, leadership development, information networking and the implementation of projects and programs to end the cat and dog surplus. Ms. Mechler co-produced the video, Throwaways and its Spanish-language equivalent Rechazados, addressing the overpopulation of cats and dogs.
​
In 1990, she founded SPAY/USA, the first and largest spay neuter data base in the US. Originally a program of Marian’s Dream, SPAY/USA is now a program of The North Shore Animal League.
​
Ms. Mechler has spoken at and organized seminars and conferences in the U.S. and overseas. She has assisted with the startup of hundreds of affordable spay programs and clinics throughout the United States. Thanks to Ms. Mechler’s SPAY/USA model and willingness to share, replication programs have begun in other nations, including Spay/Israel, Spay/Costa Rica, and Spay/Panama. For her work, Esther Mechler won the Geraldine R. Dodge Award for Humane Ethics in Action in 1995.
​
Ms. Mechler received her Bachelor’s Degree from Bates College, spending her Junior year in Geneva, Switzerland studying with psychologist Jean Piaget. Her M Ed and Sixth Year degrees are from The University of Rochester in Education.
Sherry Nemmers
Sherry Nemmers graduated Vassar College and fell into advertising, privileged to tell stories, win awards, and create a succession of iconic hall-of-famers for world-class brands. Among Sherry‘s cast of characters are McGruff the Crime Dog, the Proctor & Gamble Charmin Bears, and Mars’ Whiskas cats Chuck and Marvin (Rose Bowl celebrities).
​
While serving as Executive Creative Director and Global Creative Director for NYC based global ad agencies, and on leadership teams, Sherry helped build the world’s best brands for Mars, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, General Mills, Ad Council, and others, for over three decades. Whether the brand is a global leader or a local hero, Sherry puts her heart into everything she does. In addition to over 500 industry awards, Sherry was the first to receive the prestigious INSPIRE award given by Proctor & Gamble for outstanding leadership and innovation.In fact, the CEO christened her “Brand Magician.”
​
Sherry lives in New York City and Blue Mountain Lake, and has cats and horses, fiercely protects all animals and the Adirondacks. She is privileged to serve on the Boards for the Adirondack Council and for Adirondacks Lakes Center for the Arts.
​
An active alumnus for Vassar College, Sherry’s has chaired Leadership Gift Campaigns, and serves as an officer of her class.
Elizabeth Semrod
Elizabeth Semrod is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of New Jersey who has served on various boards including Ceasefire Washington, Trenton’s Children’s Chorus, CASA and her families’ private foundation.
​
Liz is committed to helping those who do not have a voice of their own and especially aiding in the animal world. Her 11 year old son has been a self-proclaimed vegetarian for almost two years and although her younger son prefers chicken nuggets, he states, “I wish we could live on a farm and adopt all the animals.”
Catherine Wolfe
Ms. Wolfe is an Attorney and Wildlife Biologist who is passionate about the right of animals to be free from cruelty. She is deeply determined in her efforts to educate people about the relationship of animal cruelty to domestic violence, and effective ways to address it.
​
In 2000 Ms. Wolfe opened the private law firm Catherine Wolfe, PLC.
​
Ms. Wolfe was a founding member of the Animal Law Section of the Michigan State Bar Association (the first such section in the nation)y and subsequently served as its Chairperson from 1999 to 2000.
​
Ms. Wolfe founded Wolfe Pack Press (a non-profit organization that develops and distributes educational materials to fight animal cruelty (www.wolfepackpress.org). She authored, Get the Edge in Fighting Animal Cruelty Cases, a book that teaches professionals how to recognize and successfully prosecute animal cruelty.
​
As a national speaker, Ms. Wolfe presented at the 2005, 2006, and 2007 national conferences of National Animal Control Association (NACA). Ms. Wolfe presented “Legal Reclassification of Animals is Long Overdue”at the 2010 Mid Atlantic Animal Law Symposiums.
