Board of Directors

Hilary Hager, President

Hilary is President of the board and Chair of the Professional Development Committee. She has served on the board since 2007. Hilary is the Senior Director of Volunteer Engagement at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), based from her home office here in Washington. Her role is to design and implement organizational structure for volunteer engagement at HSUS, to serve as internal consultant to the various programs to ensure they are in alignment with best practices in volunteer management, and to provide resources and training to managers of volunteers in the larger animal protection community. Prior to joining The HSUS in 2011, Hilary spent over ten years working in companion animal shelters, first at PAWS in Lynnwood, and then at Everett Animal Services, managing volunteer and other various programs and serving in leadership roles. Hilary holds a Master’s in Nonprofit Leadership from Seattle University and is a runner. She lives in Mukilteo with her husband, dog Barley, and cats Sunny and Missy.

Kay Joubert, Vice President

Kay is Vice President of the board and Chair of the Legislative Committee. Kay is currently the Director of Companion Animal Services at PAWS and has been with the organization in various capacities since 1995. Kay has a degree from Washington State University in Political Science and enjoyed using her education during the 1999-2001 Washington State legislative sessions, where her primary focus was passage of a bill that allows animal shelters to offer spay/neuter services to low-income clients. Kay has also served on the Boards of the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project and Homeward Pets. Kay and her husband Bryan currently live in Stanwood with their dog, Reilly, and two cats, Nero and Stormy.

Lorrie Kalmbach-Ehlers, Treasurer

Lorrie began her work with the Federation by serving on the Legislative Committee and joined the board in September of 2011.  Lorrie has a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Washington and has conducted research for the Department of Defense and co-produced a publication that appeared in Northwest Naturalist.  In addition, she has been employed by many nonprofit organizations, including Kitsap Humane Society, where she has shared her animal talents as adoption counselor, foster parent and volunteer, Salish Sea Expeditions as Director of Outreach and Operations, and the first Executive Director of Northwest Spay & Neuter Center, an organization dedicated to providing the community with low cost, high quality, high volume spay/neuter services. Lorrie’s volunteer endeavors also include co-founding BullsEye Dog Rescue in 2004, of which she is currently the Board President.  A small farm in Port Orchard is where she calls home with her three permanent resident dogs and an ongoing rotation of foster puppies, a cat, two goats, one 40 year old tortoise, four horses, a flock of chickens, a young boy and girl that love them all dearly, not to mention her very patient husband.

Gene Mueller, DVM, Secretary

Gene Mueller, DVM, MPH, has been the Manager of Regional Animal Services of King County since 2012. Gene previously led the Chicago Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center, Chicago’s largest critical-care veterinary hospital, and served as the President of the Anti-Cruelty Society, one of the nation’s oldest Humane Societies located in Chicago. He also has previous experience in the public sector, having led the Commission on Animal Care and Control for the City of Chicago, as well as serving as an epidemiologist and as Director of Environmental Health with the Chicago Department of Public Health. He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois. He began his career a long time ago as a veterinarian in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette.

Sara Archer, CAWA

Sara has served on the board since June 2011 and is an active participant on the Membership and Marketing Committee. After 15 years as a healthcare fundraising executive, Sara chose to combine her abilities with her passion for animal welfare in January 2006, securing the position of Executive Director of Blue Mountain Humane Society in Walla Walla, WA. She joined the Federation as a member that year and has been an active participant since, relishing the friendships, connections, and comradery of like-minded colleagues. Sara genuinely enjoys fundraising and connecting people with others who are committed to improving the lives of animals in Washington, and recently earned her Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) designation. She shares her home with her police officer husband Peter, dogs Jet Li and Nigel Tiberius, cats, Winchester and Little Legless Leaning Larry, and frequent visits from five beloved adult step-children. Sara maintains two comfortable guest rooms for anyone who wishes to visit Walla Walla!

Glynis Frederiksen

Glynis rejoined the Federation board in October of 2016. She is currently the director at Everett Animal Services. She began her animal welfare career in 1987, initially intending to work a summer job as an adoption advisor at the Seattle Humane Society. She quickly abandoned that plan and instead spent twenty years holding various positions in the organization. Glynis has also held management positions at the Spokane Humane Society and Regional Animal Services of King County. She has a special fondness for old dogs, especially chows. She lives in Seattle with Louie, her Hurricane Katrina refugee chow.

Bonne VeVea

Bonne founded MEOW Cat Rescue in 1997 and continues to serve as Executive Director. In 2011, she became a Co-Founding Board Member of Community Cat Coalition, an organization whose mission is to educate, mentor and support the public in improving the quality of life for free roaming cats. Bonne was awarded the 2013 Humane Animal Welfare Award by the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association (WSVMA) in recognition for her “strong compassion, dedication to and advocacy for felines and personal attention to their medical care.” Ever a champion of the UnderCat, her family includes eight cats, some with special needs. She lives in Redmond with her long-suffering husband of 33 years. Bonne coined MEOW’s motto, “all nine lives are precious” and lives that motto each day.

jme Thomas

jme has been the full-time volunteer Executive Director of Motley Zoo Animal Rescue since inception in 2009.  Motley Zoo was voted Favorite Local Charity in 2013 in KING 5’s Best of Western Washington poll, and has won several other awards, including a new transport vehicle from Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good. jme has dedicated her life to elevating the status of animals in society and has fostered over 900 animals. She is eager to help make Washington a Grade A state for animal welfare.

Laura Clark

Laura has worked at the Whatcom Humane Society for 15+ years and has been the executive director since 2009.  She describes her job as the “best job in the world.”  Laura has extensive experience in animal sheltering, animal control, fundraising, volunteer management, community outreach, capital campaigns and program/budget development.  Laura is currently the co-chair of the Federation’s legislative committee and has a strong desire and commitment to work on improving legislation that protects domestic, wild and farm animals on a local, state and federal level.  Laura lives in rural Whatcom County and shares her home with her husband, dogs, cats and chickens.

Ann Graves

Ann Graves is currently Acting Director of the Seattle Animal Shelter. She began her career as a volunteer with her local humane society around 1990. After making a career change and obtaining her BS in Zoology she was hired in 2000 by Seattle Animal Shelter (aka animal control) as an ACOI working in the kennels. Over the next 17 years Ann has worked in various positions primarily in the field as an officer, supervisor and manager. Ann has had extensive training in animal cruelty investigation, is past president of WACA and currently on the board of directors of the Washington Federation of Animal Care & Control Agencies. Ann has been an instructor at the WACA Academy since 2003 and continues to volunteer when she is able with the ASPCA Fir Team, HSUS and HSI. While Ann didn’t see this career path coming 20 years ago when she decided to work with animals for a living, she can’t imagine doing anything else.

Chris Federlein

Christina began volunteering with a local cat shelter shortly after retirement and served a term on their Board of Directors where she led a team to review and update their bylaws, developed job descriptions for board positions, chaired a committee that managed one of their two major annual fund raisers, and worked with a CPA firm specializing in non-profit accounting to begin preparation for a formal audit. Chris then became involved with a group of local rescuers who wanted to start an organization to focus on helping free roaming cats in the community and helped launch the Community Cat Coalition in 2012. She also volunteers for Homeward Pet Adoption Center.