Your donations make this possible

We improve the quality of life for dogs living outdoors by building free fences to get dogs off chains, providing spay/neuter and urgent vet care, and running a pet food bank. 

Board & Staff

Kelly Peterson

Kelly Peterson

Board Chair, Client Outreach Director, Co-Founder

Kelly is the Oregon State Director for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). As an accomplished advocate, Kelly has worked successfully in the Oregon legislature to pass a raft of bills to protect animals, ranging from wildlife and exotics to farm and companion animals. Kelly previously served as the Senior Vice President of State Affairs where she worked with HSUS state directors throughout the country championing animal welfare legislation and engaging like-hearted citizens to promote the protection of all animals.

Patti

Patti Loverink

Board Vice Chair, Fundraising Director

Patti joined the Fences For Fido board in 2011, focusing on marketing and fundraising for the organization and serving today as board fundraising director and gala chair. As the owner of a marketing communications agency, Patti applies her professional experience and expertise to help support and grow non-profit organizations. Patti is co-founder of Fences For Fido’s Unchained Planet project, dedicated to accelerating the unchaining movement by providing grants and mentorship to start-up unchaining organizations around the country.

Michele

Michelle Blake

Executive Director

 Michelle has been with Fences For Fido since its founding in 2009, serving as a board member, board co-chair, and as a Client Outreach Coordinator and Crew Leader. More recently, she's served as FFF's grant writer. As a longtime advocate and nonprofit leader, she's worked to pass laws to protect animals and helped establish Salem's first high-volume spay/neuter clinic. Drawing on her background in news media, fundraising, and public policy, Michelle develops and coordinates FFF's public messaging and fundraising, ensuring that we grow strategically to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients, volunteers, donors, and the dogs who bring us all together in this labor of love.

Karen Van

Karen Van Winkle

Board Member, Treasurer

 Karen first joined Fences For Fido as a volunteer fence builder in Central Oregon and after relocating to the Willamette Valley, she expanded her volunteer involvement by overseeing the cat food distribution and delivery of our organization’s monthly pet food bank on the Warm Springs Reservation. Soon after, Karen combined her love of Fences For Fido with her professional skills, by assuming the role of bookkeeper and just recently was elected to serve as Fences For Fido Treasurer, bringing 20+ years of accounting experience and expertise. Karen has been involved with animal related nonprofits for over 15 years and has served as a Board member at other nonprofits, as well as holding the role of Treasurer/Bookkeeper.

jennifer

Jennifer Rackstraw

 Board Secretary

For more than 20 years, Jeni has been involved in animal advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. Since 2003, she has worked as an administrative law judge for the State of Oregon, conducting administrative hearings for agencies, boards, and commissions. Since 2007, she has also served on an Appellate Panel for City of Portland police and firefighter disability benefit cases. She has extensive experience training and mentoring administrative law judges and has presented at multiple conferences regarding administrative law practice. She has a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Animal Law Review, the nation’s oldest law journal devoted exclusively to animal legal issues. 

Telma

Telma Pombrol

Board Member, Chief Materials Procurement Officer

 Telma was born in Connecticut to Cuban parents and lived in Venezuela for about 20 years. She has always had a passion for animal welfare and while in Venezuela helped rehab injured wildlife, from an Ocelot kitten that was caught in a barbed wire fencing to squirrels, parrots, fawns and even a trio of baby caimans. Telma earned her degree in Tourism Business Administration and moved back to the U.S. where she started a professional career. She has since left the private sector and now works for the State of Oregon Department of Justice Child Support Division in Salem. She devotes her free time caring for her furry family and volunteering for Fences For Fido where she serves as a client outreach coordinator and the chief materials officer.

Elieen Denis

Eileen Dennis

Board Member

After a career in public accounting, Eileen spent many years doing accounting for the movie industry. Fast forward over three decades, Eileen felt compelled to help animals. She began volunteering with various animal welfare organizations, including shelters and transport organizations, which often took her to the Portland, Oregon area. Combined with being able to work on several movies in Portland convinced her and her husband to relocate to the Rose City. A graduate in finance from the University of Wisconsin, she has worked as a CPA in several states and several industries. Eileen and her husband live with their dog Sophie and cat Smokey.

Theo Perez

Theo Perez 

Board Member

A Warm Springs tribal member and director of Warm Springs Commodities, embodies the definition of a heart of service and compassion, contributing to his community on behalf of Warm Springs Community Action Team, Reservation Impact, Neighbor Impact, and a commitment to overall community health. He is also a small business owner, artist and much more. Theo is also a proud and devoted father of an incredible son. Theo raises the bar when it comes to positive impact and is deeply grounded to his community and offering solutions and resources in everything he does. Fences For Fido is so honored to have Theo as part of our Board. He is truly the very spirit of love in action.

Becky Robbins.jpeg

Becky Robbins 

Board Member

First joined Fences for Fido in 2009 as a fence-building volunteer. In addition, for the past 16 years she serves as a foster team lead for the Family Dogs New Life Shelter Foster Dog Program in Portland, OR. With Family Dogs she focuses on adoptions, securing foster families, fundraising and media outreach. Professionally, Becky has a 25-year career in partnership marketing and PR with a focus on leveraging corporate and small business relationships to support the needs of the community. Becky loves to travel the world and run her refurbished furniture store space that supports animals. She shares her home with Henry and Blossom, her rescue pit bulls.

Ken

Ken Brown

Board Member, Crew Leader

Ken was born and raised in the SW Washington area. After serving in the military, he returned to his hometown and started a career in the Information Technology field. After 35 years of IT work, he's semi-retired. He joined volunteered for his first FFF fence build in late 2022 and accepted the volunteer role of Crew Leader for Lewis County, WA, in March 2023. A lifelong animal advocate, Ken has volunteered on animal rescue missions, assisted local rescues on fostering and rehoming dogs, and attended multiple animal cruelty court cases in Lewis and Thurston County. In his free time, he enjoys working outside on his property, boating , fly fishing, concerts, road trips and helping animals in need. He shares his home with 3 rescue dogs and 5 rescue cats.

Juan Lopez

Juan Lopez

Board Member

Juan Lopez is the co-owner of Evergreen Veterinary Hospital in Salem, where he oversees business operations. With 30+ years’ experience working in veterinary medicine and 20+ years in animal welfare advocacy, he has been able to combine the two worlds to aid animals in need. Within the first 5 years of opening his practice he has been able to donate over $1.2 million in urgent medical aid to animals within the community and abroad. Juan has been very active in providing free veterinary medical services to veterans, low-income families and pets belonging to the houseless, with a focus on spaying/neutering and animal ownership education. During the 2020 wildfires, Juan led the coordination in Marion County to help families with pets who were fleeing in their homes. He continues to volunteer in educating youth on the importance of compassion and kindness towards animals, from early childhood development education through all grade levels. Juan has committed his life to animal advocacy; his compassion for animals in need knows no borders.

Katrina

Katrina Kennedy

Fundraising & Community Outreach Coordinator

Katrina is one of the original co-founders of Fences For Fido and has been involved with the organization from its very beginnings. She's served as social media coordinator, donor steward, and vet care coordinator, among other roles. She's usually the first contact people reach when they call or email Fences For Fido.

a person holds a dog

Mia Bonadonna

Client Application Coordinator & Outreach Specialist

Mia joined Fences for Fido as a Client Application Coordinator and Community Outreach Specialist in 2019. She has an MSc in Clinical Animal Behavior from the University of Edinburgh where she researched the rehabilitation of formerly hoarded dogs. Mia is a board-certified applied animal behaviorist and professional dog trainer who uses her knowledge and expertise in science-based dog welfare to support Fences for Fido's clients and operations.