Meet Our Board

Friends of the Animal Shelter, like most non-profit organizations, is run by a Board of Directors. FOTAS' part-time employees report to and are accountable to the Board. The Board sets policy and direction for the organization. It also oversees the organization's finances and fundraising.

The members of our Board enjoy the Board meetings and their interactions with one another. At our Board meetings, the input of each member is valued and weighed in a creative atmosphere. All members of the Board are uncompensated volunteers.

If you would like to be considered for a position on our Board, please send us an E-mail for more information.

Barbara Talbert – President

Barbara started walking dogs at the shelter in August 2008, a year after leaving Southern Oregon University, where she spent 15 years in continuing education administration. She quickly got hooked as a FOTAS volunteer and now keeps the adoptable dogs updated on the Petfinder.com website, fosters dogs who need a break from the shelter, uses e-mail and Facebook to inform other volunteers about adoptions and new arrivals at the shelter, and helps with publicity for FOTAS events. When she’s not hanging out with shelter dogs, Barbara volunteers her time in the community to work on projects related to continuing education, recycling, and sustainability.

Barbara lives in Ashland with her husband Kevin and her dog Chaco, a Chesapeake Bay retriever mix, who was adopted from the shelter in August 2008. They enjoy walking, hiking, camping, rafting, and traveling around the country in their van.

Peggy Moore – Vice President

Peggy joined FOTAS in 1999, originally helping with shot clinics and Puss 'n Boots. She joined the Board in 2003, shortly before she retired from a 36 year career in California Community Colleges. She served as a faculty member, Vice President of Instruction and Superintendent/President. In 2004 she became the FOTAS Board President.

Peggy shares her life with her partner, 2 rescue dogs from the Shelter (a shepherd mix, Golda Meir and a mixed 6 breed dog named Pilot). In addition there are four great Pyrenees (Misha, Ioreck, Canis and Nestor) who are guardians to 52 dairy goats. Three cats from the Shelter have recently joined the household - Elmo, Tashi and Tara.

Peggy enjoys working as a dog adoption counselor, still participating in monthly shot clinics, working on dog washes and Puss n Boots as well as a variety of routine tasks to help the organization fulfill its mission. In addition to work with FOTAS, Peggy chairs the Colestin Rural Fire District Board of Directors and volunteers with the Ashland Independent Film Festival. She also works as a consultant to California Community Colleges, specializing in colleges with accreditation issues.

Jeane Lind – Secretary

Jeane, a retired lawyer, became a FOTAS volunteer in 2001. She has worked in the shelter sick room, cat room, shot clinic and community events. She is active in the Puss ‘N Boots Ball auction, Coins for Kitties and transporting animals. She joined the Board in 2003, served as Treasurer and is now Secretary. She and her husband David live in Ashland with their 13-year old shelter Snowshoe Siamese, Duppy, and occasional foster kitty friends. Duppy travels with his family in their little RV and loves the outdoors.

Eliza Kauder - Treasurer

Eliza has had a life-long love affair with all things furry. She has been a volunteer with FOTAS for since 1997 as an adoption counselor, team captain, poster pinner-upper, dog washer, and even did the layout for “Scoop” for 6 years.

Eliza and her husband, Brad, live in Ashland with their black lab/moose mix named Phoebe (nickname: Feed Me) and a forever-kitten named Shira. And there’s always the possibility of coming home with a new furry member of the family every time Eliza volunteers at the Shelter. Eliza and Brad are known for their prize-winning Puss ‘n’ Boots costumes!

Professionally, Eliza is a senior-level manager at a financial services company.

Rabbitt Babbitt – Member at Large

Rabbitt (aka Jane Babbitt) has been talking to the animals since day one. In 2009, her rescued Maine Coon cat, Stockton, whispered in her ear that it was time to check out the animal shelter.  She has been a FOTAS member and volunteer ever since, working in the cat room two days a week, doing adoption counseling, fostering, attending outreach events and keeping up the want files. Last summer she launched “Mews and News,” a weekly cat room newsletter, now approaching its 34th edition.
 
Rabbitt moved to Southern Oregon in 1971 and lived for twelve years in an intentional community focused on organic gardening, raising children and many animals (dogs, cats, chickens, goats and a cow), as well as building their homes, a school and a clinic.  It was at the clinic that she started attending births and participated in the delivery of over 1000 babies. In 1983, Rabbitt moved to Ashland where she finished nursing school and went on to a career of 21 years as a labor and delivery RN.  During this time she was also an avid skydiver, mountain biker and cycling tourist.

Rabbitt now enjoys golf, reading, gardening, cooking, and living with her husband David.  They enjoy travelling, especially to Mexico and Canada, and spending time with their three wonderful felines: Stockton, Sophie, and their first foster, Jimi Jah Jones.

Tracy Gault – Member at Large

Tracy has enjoyed volunteering at the Shelter since July of 2009. She started by walking dogs and gradually became more involved with FOTAS as an adoption counselor, daily dog walker bulletin writer, outreach volunteer, Eagle Point parade organizer, FOTAS Facebook page co-administrator, as well as taking on a variety of administrative work. Tracy also appears on TV with adoptable dogs. During her time with FOTAS, she has fostered and found homes for over twenty dogs. Though Tracy fills a variety of different volunteer functions, her favorite “job” is walking and cuddling the sheltered dogs.

If all this Shelter puppy loving is not enough, Tracy also has three dogs of her own, one of whom was one of her foster dogs. Prezzie is a Chihuahua/Pug mix who wormed her way into the pack, which also includes thirteen-year-old shepherd mix Carmen and four-year-old Lab mix Bayley. When not at the Shelter or walking her own dogs, Tracy enjoys reading, camping and spending time outdoors. She also has an accounting business that keeps her busy and pays for all the dog food.

Jeani Kimball – Member at Large

Jeani has been a devoted FOTAS volunteer since 2002. She began working one day a week in the cat room, but soon found herself at the Shelter three days a week – and loving it! Jeani is an invaluable resource for the board, as she gets to experience the day-to-day workings at the Shelter. She regularly fosters cats and kittens.

Jeani shares her home with her husband Jon and their two cats, Kit and Kat. Kit and Kat are shelter alumni that she fostered and then adopted when they played their way into her heart. Jeani says she’s learned a lot from all her cats over the years, but still loves to go to the shelter to hang out with all the “street” cats and help them find permanent homes.

Colleen Macuk – Member at Large

Colleen is the Shelter manager and has been working with FOTAS since its inception in 1990. Her place on the board "assures open communications and the kind of understandings that has made our relationship so successful."

Colleen is owned by Bubba, a Shar-pei mix that she saved from parvo and Kya, a 6-year-old Australian Shepherd mix who is completely deaf and partially blind. In an amazing show of restraint, these are Colleen’s only two pets, and she says that "unless I am willing to trade my husband for more pets, they will be our only two for a while."

Marnie Norvell – Member at Large

Marnie joined FOTAS in 1998 after moving to Ashland from Arcadia, California. She is a former teacher and was an adoption counselor at the Pasadena Humane Society for many years. Marnie helps enforce the Shelter's spay/neuter program by counseling people who have adopted a pet but failed to comply with their spay/neuter contract.

Marnie and her husband Pete share their home with three rescued dogs, Duffy, Annie and Willie. Her interests are family, animals, tennis walking, reading, rafting, and theater.

Jan Vidmar – Member at Large

Jan, a retired Special Education teacher from Alaska, became a FOTAS volunteer because she missed being with cats and dogs.  After traveling and cruising aboard her sailboat for 15 years (without a pet), she put down roots in the Rogue Valley, and became involved with FOTAS  to improve the lives of pets in Jackson County.

Jan now shares life with tabby Darwin, a Shelter alumnus, and enjoys hiking, gardening, reading, biking, GlideCycling, riding her motorcycle, volunteering with the Oregon Shakespeare Theater, and especially observing and studying birds.