Meg started her career with a degree in Computer Science and worked as a software engineer and project lead for 16 years before taking time off to raise her two children, Sophia and Rocco. During her time as a software developer, she and her husband, Chuck, also partnered as owners and operators of several small for-profit service industry businesses.

When Meg was ready to jump back into the workforce, she chose a very different path. Meg began working wholeheartedly in the animal welfare industry, first at a private rescue where her responsibilities ranged from daily animal care, intake to placement, and volunteer co-coordinator. Meg then took a position on an outcomes team as the adoption coordinator and rabbit program coordinator at her local open admissions municipal shelter.

Meg feels very fortunate that both the rescue and shelter were aligned with her philosophy that adoption barriers should be removed, allowing more people to enjoy the benefits of pet guardianship. Working at a HASS shelter with a director who was committed to the mission allowed her the opportunity to partner with community members from all walks of life and match them with their new furry family members. Meg used to say she had the best job at the shelter.

Upon leaving the shelter, Meg felt that, although she loved working with the shelter animals every day, the antiquated model of sheltering and rehoming animals is a never-ending hole that we will never dig our way out of. She decided to shift her focus to finding solutions to help prevent animals from coming into the shelter in the first place. While she recognized that easy access to no/low cost high volume, high quality spay/neuter services is the ultimate solution, she also acknowledged that the mission to solve this problem is a very challenging one.

Instead, Meg started thinking about how to reunite lost pets with their guardians and preempt them from entering the shelter system. This thought quickly evolved into thinking about the systemic problems that many people face that force them to have to give up their pets due to lack of resources. Meg realized this is an area where, with the right team, she could make a difference, one human and one pet at a time.

As an adoption coordinator, Meg could often be heard saying, “Everyone deserves to love an animal and every animal deserves to be loved”. Through her work at HAPI, she is committed to keeping as many pets with their guardians as possible by providing pathways to resources and services, including spay/neuter.