Stefanie Geckler is the Supervisor of the Animal Control Division at the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada City, CA. Stef’s newest endeavor is the Nevada County Sheriff’s H.E.A.R.T (Humane Emergency Animal Rescue Team), of which she is the founder and president. This team is a volunteer group run and fully supported by the Sheriff’s Office, that responds anytime a disaster is declared and animals need to be rescued. The building of this team, with the full support of her Sheriff, has been in her heart and mind for years and to see it come to fruition has been a dream come true.

Karalyn currently serves as the Vice President of Operations for the East Bay SPCA in Oakland, CA. Prior to serving here, Karalyn completed two Master of Science degrees in Ecology and Evolution and Animal Behavior and has over a decade of experience as a leader in numerous facets of animal welfare. Karalyn has achieved her Certified Animal Welfare Administrator credential and has served on a number of national animal welfare committees, guest lectured to Animal Science students at UC Davis, and contributed to the development of the Shelter Playgroup Alliance guidelines for shelter dog playgroups and enrichment. Karalyn has served during response operations to disasters in both California and Florida and managed the temporary emergency sheltering facility for the Canine Influenza Outbreak in the bay area during the summer of 2019.

Bryan Bray, the Field Services Manager for Ventura County Animal Services, began his career in the Animal Welfare Industry in 2005. He has extensive experience in coordinating evacuation efforts during natural disasters and is currently a member of the Ventura County EOC Team (Emergency Operations Center). During his tenure, Bryan was able to obtain two (2) AKC pet disaster trailers and develop a livestock shelter supply trailer through a grant program. He has acted as the Disaster Response/Evacuation Coordinator during the incidents including the 2009 Guiberson Fire, 2013 Spring Fire, 2017/18 Thomas Fire, 2018 Hill Fire, 2018 Woolsey Fire, and 2019 Easy/Maria Fire.
Bryan has been a speaker at local town hall meetings, neighborhood councils and safety day events promoting disaster preparedness. He recently was a speaker at the 2020 CalAnimals Animal Care Conference for Community Planning in Disasters.

Kelly Campbell joined the County of San Diego's Department of Animal Services as Director in March of 2020. She has held various leadership roles with large national animal welfare nonprofits since 2011. With an early career in operations team leadership and an analytical approach to tackling tough animal welfare challenges, Kelly sees the companion animal homelessness issue as a complex, multivariable equation - and if we can identify the right variables, community by community, and target our resources to address them, we can effect positive change at scale.

Cindy began her career with Marin Humane in 1984. She currently serves as the Director of Animal Services and is a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA). She has a strong interest in animal disaster preparedness and response and coordinates response efforts during Marin County disasters. She has extensive expertise working in Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) to assist in animal response coordination efforts. Cindy’s expertise in helping communities has resulted in her deployments throughout California and out-of-state. Her ability to collaborate with local, regional, state, and national organizations has resulted in identifying critical resources and partners in disaster preparedness and response. Cindy also enjoys helping to develop disaster plans and works hard to ensure a variety of animal disaster preparedness plans are in place for Marin County animal guardians, community members, and animal facilities. She routinely speaks on helping animals in disasters and is always willing to help others with disaster-related activities.

Nancy B. McKenney, MNPL, CAWA, feels fortunate to have worked for a private humane society, a public animal care and control agency, an animal grant-maker, a consultant and now in her dream job at Marin Humane, which provides both humane society and animal services functions (and more!).
Nancy began a career in animal welfare and non-profit management in 1983 when she was hired as the Public Relations Coordinator for the Humane Society for Seattle/King County, a nonprofit humane society with a public boarding facility and housing contracts for the City of Renton. In 1986, the Seattle Humane Society board asked her to become the Executive Director/CEO, a position she held for 19 years.

Lori began her career as an Animal Control Officer at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA in San Mateo in 1983 and became the Captain of Animal Control for the San Francisco Animal Care and Control Department in 1989. Lori currently works for the County of San Mateo, where she oversees the Animal Control & Licensing contract with the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, along with the all-volunteer Large Animal Evacuation Group (LAEG). Her disaster experience is extensive, spanning earthquakes, fires, floods, and hoarding cases, and including the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Oakland Firestorm, the Tubbs Fire, CZU Lighting Complex Fires, and the Caldor Fire – a sampling of some of California’s most devastating events.

John Peaveler is an animal welfare professional with over 18 years of global experience in the fields of animal control, animal population management, disaster response, and animal handling and capture. He has extensive experience in international and US disaster as a responder as well as experience as a disaster manager in the State of California with the San Diego Humane Society. John is also an expert in free-roaming population management programs and currently serves as the Director, Field Operations, for Greater Good Charities where he supports high volume sterilization efforts.

Ryan “Cowboy” Soulsby is the Program Manager for Butte County Animal Control. As a licensed RVT, Ryan has been working in the animal field since 2001. While becoming Program Manager in 2016, Ryan has been the Animal Incident Commander for events such as the Oroville Spillway, Ponderosa, Wall, and Wind Complex fires in 2017. The devastating Camp Fire that decimated the town of Paradise in 2018 and most recently, the North Complex fire in 2020. Ryan has experienced first-hand the importance of preparedness and the need for trained personnel within the animal operations. Ryan has specialized experience navigating the state resource request process to procure regional, state, and federal resources to assist the Animal Operations.

Brian Whipple is the Operations Manager of Sonoma County Animal Services with over 27 years of experience working in law enforcement and animal care. He has a passion for the protection and humane treatment of animals, as well as disaster emergency response and educating the public and those working within the animal care field from his experiences. Brian developed the Sonoma County Emergency Animal Response Plan in his current position and has been involved in numerous disaster response field operations including local floods and snowstorms in New Hampshire and Delaware, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Wilma, Hurricane Sandy, Lake County, CA fire response in 2015, Sonoma County fire response in 2017, 2019, 2020 and local floods in Sonoma County, CA. He was also deployed to the Camp Fire in 2018 and the Caldor Fire in 2021. He served as Incident Commander for the animal response to the October Firestorm in Sonoma County, CA in October 2017. Brian spoke about this experience on the national level at the 2017 National Alliance of State Animal and Agricultural Emergency Programs (NASAAEP) summit. In addition to his experience, Brian has several certifications specifically related to disaster and emergency response along with management and field investigation.