Erin Alamed: Shelter & VOlunteer Director
Erin has always had a special place in her heart for animals. Giving them a voice, supporting and loving them is a mission she could not refuse. Originally from Maryland, she came to Vermont for school in 2000. Her journey with HSCC began in 2013 when she started volunteering. Erin did everything from cleaning to event help and loved every minute. Over time she's adopted a cat, Emma and two dogs, Siena and Shelby from HSCC.
When Erin was offered a position at HSCC at the beginning of 2015 she was ecstatic! She is so proud to be working with such an amazing staff and so many awesome volunteers who do so much to help the animals in our comminuty. To call herself lucky would be an understatement.
Lauren Belanger: Animal & Customer Care
Lauren is the proud mom of one cat named Cammy as well as one HSCC alum named Smalls the Chinchilla! She was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Growing up, she frequently brought in strays and was always on the look out for animals in need. Later on, she graduated school in Florida before living in Quebec, Canada.
Lauren and her husband Eric eventually moved here to Burlington Vermont and after years of working for a locally owned family business on Church Street she finally came to be with us here at HSCC. She couldn’t be more grateful being able to reach out and help our amazing community along with the loving animals we care for.
Pamela brown, DVM, CVA, CCRT, CVPP: Veterinarian
Dr. Pam Brown is originally from New Hampshire and earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science from the University of New Hampshire in 1992. She graduated from Ross University, School of Veterinary Medicine in 1998 after completing her senior clinical rotations at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Brown has practiced as a small animal general practitioner and emergency and critical care veterinarian in New York, New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts. Dr. Brown received her Certification in Veterinary Acupuncture in 2009 through The International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and her Certification in Canine Rehabilitation Therapy in 2011 through the Canine Rehabilitation Institute. Prior to joining BEVS in 2016, Dr. Brown served as staff acupuncturist and rehabilitation therapist at a large emergency and referral hospital in New Jersey. Dr. Brown’s areas of interest include improving patient’s quality of life though pain management, therapeutic exercise, and noninvasive adjunctive therapies.
Dr. Pamela Brown is a Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioner (CVPP). Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioners are veterinary professionals that the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management (IVAPM) has recognized as having the training and skills necessary to practice animal pain management effectively and ethically. IVAPM’s certification program is rigorous and comprehensive, covering pain medications, physical rehabilitation, therapeutic laser and acupuncture. Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioners are committed to recognizing and treating pain in all their patients in the safest and most effective manner possible. Dr. Pamela Brown is the only CVPP in the State of Vermont.
Joyce Cameron: President & CEO
A New York City native, Joyce came to Vermont to attend college and stayed. With a degree in business administration, she has over 20 years of experience working in private, public and non-profit sectors and has an affinity for mission driven organizations. Joyce is a graduate of the Snelling Center for Government’s Leadership Institute, a court appointed guardian ad litem, and a member of both a state commission and board. Growing up in a household with four dogs, Joyce developed a love for animals at any early age and looks forward to helping further the mission of this wonderful organization dedicated to improving the lives of animals and humans alike. In her (not much) spare time she hikes, cycles, skis, paints, gardens and enjoys cooking for friends. She lives in Charlotte with her dog Amos and cat Percy (an HSCC alum).
Dr. Carrie Childs: CPC Veterinarian
Dr. Carrie Childs is a graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. After spending time as an outdoor educator, ski bum, classroom teacher, and owner of a rascal shelter dog from Leadville Colorado, she decided that veterinary medicine was a better career choice (and has no regrets). Upon graduating veterinary school, Dr. Childs worked for an animal shelter and animal rescue organization in Philadelphia, PA, providing low-cost surgery and wellness services to the city’s underserved and homeless animal populations. Dr. Childs returned to Vermont in 2021 and started working for HSCC in 2022.
Dr. Childs comes to HSCC with a passion for high-quality high-volume surgery, soft tissue and orthopedic surgery, shelter medicine, ultrasound, and the tricky business of working with owners to provide the best possible care for their animals. She has dogs, cats, a husband, and child at home, but will only foster animals she can carry home in her backpack.
Cynthia Harris Cole: Animal Care Manager
Cynthia is thrilled to be a member of the HSCC team! Having grown up in upstate New York surrounded by animals, she feels right at home with all of the shelter’s residents. She loves animals of all shapes and sizes, and advocated for their humane and compassionate treatment from an early age. Out of all the joys that come from working with animals, her favorite is spending time with the underdogs (of all species) and seeing their resilience in overcoming whatever challenges they face.
In her free time, Cynthia enjoys reading, baking goodies, and of course spending time with her husband and rescue dogs enjoying all that Vermont has to offer. Her pups Angie and Mia inspired her to pick up books, watch videos, and attend classes on dog behavior and training. While none of them claim to have perfected their training, the experience gave Cynthia a greater appreciation for the relationships between people and the animals around them.
Prior to working at HSCC, Cynthia studied history and worked in the publishing and legal fields while volunteering with animal welfare organizations, something she always found exciting and rewarding. Now she is grateful for the opportunity to follow her passion in helping people and animals!
Heather Covillon: Humane Education Program Coordinator
Heather joined HSCC as a Camp Counselor at Camp Paw Paw in 2017. She has been teaching French in Vermont schools since 2012 after graduating from the University of Vermont with a degree in Secondary Education. She continues to work with Camp Paw Paw, Animal Welfare Warriors, & Humane Heroes Workshop developing humane education programming for youth ages 5-15.
She has 2 animals at home, both adopted from HSCC: Ziggy the lionhead rabbit in 2017 & Benny the hedgehog in 2020. Heather has always had animals in her life while growing up in Vermont & she loves sharing her passion for animals with others!
Whitney Doremus: Dog Trainer
Whitney began her dog training career in 1997 when she took a position as the Dog Trainer at Petsmart in Gainesville, FL. Very quickly she learned how much more she needed to learn and ended up with an apprenticeship with Dee ZurBurg of Class Act For Dogs. After a year of intense human training, Whitney moved to Wilmington, NC where she took a position at Dogtrain. In 2001, she opened the first doggy daycare in North Carolina, Dogs At Play, and still owns it today. In 2010 she moved back to Vermont, where she was born, and has been teaching humans how to train dogs in our area ever since. You may have worked with her before at HSCC under her private training business, Super Dogs, or through Vermont Dog Club in Essex Junction. Whitney shares her life with her amazing partner, Shannon, and their three dogs.
Olivia Eastman: Customer Care Associate
Olivia moved to Burlington from the Boston area in 2018 to pursue her bachelors degree in psychology and studio art. She fell in love with the art, food, and nature in Vermont and decided to stick around post-grad. She loves working with the community and the animals and could not be more thrilled to join HSCC!
Olivia has been a lifelong animal lover and has always had rescue pets in her family. Currently, she has a pet hedgehog named Kiwi! She is excited to work both with the animals and people in her community at HSCC.
Tekla Gaughan: Customer Care Associate
Tekla is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and moved to Burlington with her partner, Zach, after spending a few years working on Broadway in NYC. Tekla’s has two fur babies at home, a sweet Salem kitty and their puppy, Rudy. Tekla loves to host dinner parties, kayak on the lake, and cuddle up with their animals and a good book. Tekla truly believes that every animal deserves a safe and loving place to call home and is honored to be able to support their journeys!
Jocelyn Girton: Animal & Customer Care
Jocelyn is a born and raised Vermonter who adopted her first two cats twenty years ago from HSCC. Since she can remember she has always had a deep compassion and respect for all creatures great and small. She began volunteering at various shelters at a young age and has always found animal energy to be incredibly rejuvenating and healing.
Jocelyn studied film at Burlington College before pursuing a massage therapy certification and working as massage therapist at Jivana for the past few years. She hopes to bring her positive healing energy and dedication to animal welfare to HSCC while being able to develop skills to help local and global animal communities.
When not catering to her cat Atticus (an HSCC alum), she can be found outside soaking up summer sun, dog spotting, reading, painting, and hitting as many dance floors as possible.
Emily Hecker: Director of Development
An animal rights advocate since childhood, Emily is thrilled for the opportunity to use her professional skills to further the mission of the Humane Society. Originally from Oklahoma, Emily came to Vermont with her family in 2017 and decided to make it home. With a degree in Communication, she started her career as a producer for a French news channel and more recently was the Director of Development and Communications for a public school district.
Emily is an active member of her community in Milton, having served on the school board and engaging with local issues. Growing up with a house full of pets (which was affectionately called a petting zoo at its peak), Emily deeply values the humbling, unconditional love that results from relationships with animals. She enjoys hiking with her dog Uri, reading with her cat Minnow, and traveling with her family.
Grace Hoehl: Animal Care Associate
Grace is a born and raised Vermonter. During high school she was a Morning Animal Care volunteer at HSCC and had a blast spending her weekend mornings visiting and loving on all of the upstairs cats and smallies. In 2018 she left Vermont to attend Bates College in Maine and received a BS in 2022 as a Chemistry major. She was shocked to fall in love with the ocean, as a devoted lake lover, and is convinced she will be living in Maine again at some point in the future. For now she is very happy to be back in Vermont and working with a tremendous team at HSCC!
Grace has grown up with a variety of animals at home, but currently lives with her puggle Baxter and gerbil Mabel. She has always dreamed of working with animals and is ecstatic to be gaining more knowledge and skills interacting and communicating with them. Outside of her love of animals, she enjoys playing competitive sports, listening to music, and dancing!
Trea Hsieh-Lewis: Camp Paw Paw Counselor
Trea Hsieh-Lewis has always loved and felt a deep sense of responsibility towards animals of all species, particularly the misunderstood and mistreated. It should come as no surprise that after leaving her hometown of Kennebunk, Maine for Burlington, she would study Animal Science at UVM. A couple years into her major, she decided to adopt six pet rats, two of which were from the HSCC! She is particularly interested in studying the inner lives of rats, and her ongoing thesis project at UVM focuses on using cognition and affective states as lenses to assess the ethics and efficacy of using rat models in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Outside of school and work, Trea loves hanging with her rats, practicing guitar, and cooking new vegan recipes.
Heather Klaff: Medical Clinic director
Heather started talking about working with animals when she was three years old, and never wavered. She got an early start in the veterinary field in high school as a veterinary assistant and kennel attendant before coming to the University of Vermont for college. She graduated in 2009 with a degree in animal sciences and a minor in English, and immediately began working full time with animals in the Burlington area after graduation. She worked as a veterinary technician in a few different private practices in the area before making a move to shelter medicine as the medical manager at HSCC in 2014. Once at HSCC, she quickly and thoroughly fell in love with shelter medicine and joined the leadership team as the Medical Clinic Director at HSCC in 2020. She has had the opportunity to grow the medical program at HSCC and, over the last couple of years, she spearheaded starting and growing the Community Pet Clinic. Providing veterinary care to animals in the shelter, and particularly animals of low income and underserved pet owners, is her dream job and she feels incredibly lucky to get to do it every day. When not hanging around the shelter, she lives with her partner and poorly behaved tribe of cats in South Burlington. She loves to cycle recreationally, ballroom dance, and cook and bake for everyone and everybody whenever she can.
triana Kozak: Veterinary Technician
Triana graduated from The University of Vermont with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. Triana has been an animal lover her entire life, growing up with a number of different pets including guinea pigs, snapping turtles, dogs, a tortoise, and two cats who survived from a stray's litter in her garage. Triana lives with her husband Ben, their dog Gus and their two rescued cats, Morty and Macho. She enjoys taking Gus on adventures and long hikes, and Ben and Triana love their home in Vermont where they camp, kayak, snowboard and explore the north country. Triana is excited to be working for HSCC, continuing her lifelong mission to help animals and people alike.
Isabel Lardner: Foster Program Coordinator & Animal Care Assistant
Isabel’s love for animals began young: growing up, her family had a variety of pets, from chickens and ducks to your more standard (though no less loved!) dog and cat. When she was five, her parents gave into her incessant begging and she started riding lessons, sparking a lifelong passion for horses. She moved from Ohio to Vermont for college, attending the University of Vermont and receiving her bachelor’s in 2020. Immediately afterwards, she moved from Burlington to Middlebury for an extraordinary year working as an apprentice on the Morgan Horse Farm, where she got to experience all the ins and outs of working on a historical breeding and training facility. It also confirmed what she already knew: that working with animals offers a fulfillment like no other. She is absolutely thrilled to be working at HSCC and at having the opportunity to extend her animal care experience into the world of domestic animals. Isabel lives in Burlington, and in what spare time she can find enjoys hiking, hanging out in coffee shops, and visiting local farmer’s markets.
Makayla Lessor: Animal Care Associate
Makayla grew up in Burlington and has a longstanding interest in animal welfare, having attended HSCC’s Camp Paw Paw as a kid, and more recently volunteering at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. She has many rescue animals including Ouija, a cat she fell in love with while volunteering for BFAS whom she flew home with her all the way to Vermont. She currently attends UVM, where her interests lie in veterinary science and neuroscience.
Ingrid Mangold: Veterinary Technician
Ingrid grew up in Virginia and fostered a love for animals from a young age. She came to Vermont in 2008 to attend the University of Vermont, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English. Following graduation, she spent the following two winters working at wildlife sanctuaries in South Africa before coming back to Vermont. After trying a handful of other jobs such as farming and carpentry, Ingrid realized she needed to work with animals once again and pursued a career as a veterinary technician. After working in private practice for five years, Ingrid jumped at the opportunity to work at HSCC where she is able to help shelter animals and the community get the medical care they need.
When not at work, Ingrid enjoys rock climbing, reading, painting, and spending time outside in the sun. Ingrid lives with her husband Jay and their adorable rescues Asha and Gimli.
Robyn Martin: Accounting Assistant
A native Vermonter, Robyn’s love of animals began at a young age. Her family truly valued animals and they always had at least one pet. Robyn attended Champlain College and received a degree in education in 2006. Upon receiving her degree, she worked primarily in the early childhood field as a classroom teacher and later as an education specialist. Robyn devoted her skills to working with non-profit organizations such as the YMCA and Head Start. Robyn and her husband Colby welcomed their first son in 2016 and a second son in 2019. While staying home full-time with her children, Robyn made the decision to go back to school to study accounting. She was overjoyed when offered this position at HSCC and loves being part of such a wonderful team. Robyn spends most of her free time with her family, which includes their two beloved dogs, Jig and Ivy. Robyn and her family love to get outside and go on hikes, bike rides, and explorations of this beautiful state we call home.
Jenna McMaster: Communications Coordinator
Jenna McMaster has been a part of the northeastern animal welfare community for over 5 years. After earning a master’s degree from the University of Washington, where she focused on philosophy of science and ethics, Jenna moved to New York City and started volunteering for local cat rescue groups. In 2016 she became the Vice President of Whiskers-A-GoGo Inc, a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) non-profit. There, she rescued and rehabilitated hundreds of cats and kittens and assisted in local TNR efforts. In 2019, Jenna joined the Animal Care Centers of NYC as the Adoptions Supervisor, working towards ending animal homelessness through open adoptions. After moving to Burlington with her husband and floofy cat sons Jack and Georgie, Jenna joined HSCC, where she continues to pursue her passion of helping animals and the people who love them. In her free time, Jenna enjoys baking and reading a healthy balance of fiction and non-fiction.
Mike Miceli: Building Maintenance & Repairman
After retiring from a long career as general manager of Windshield World, Mike was looking to volunteer some time to a local organization.
Without a dog for the first time in many years, and unable to make a year-round commitment to a new pooch, HSCC was his number one choice. After a few months of shelter help and dog walking, a part-time position for Building Maintenance and Repair became available. Having observed an incredibly competent, dedicated and hard-working staff in action, Mike was thrilled when asked to be more integral to the betterment of the animals in our care.
Mike lives in Williston with his wife Kate and cat Libby.
JoAnn Nichols: Humane Investigator & educator, TNR specialist
JoAnn Nichols started in the animal welfare and animal rights movement in the late 1970s. Over the decades she has worked undercover for an animal rights organization photographing cruelty in the factory farm systems, to cleaning oiled wildlife from oil spills. Working in Animal Sheltering for over twenty years, currently she is the Humane Investigator and TNR Specialist at the Humane Society of Chittenden County, she enjoys the challenges the work brings and partaking in making a difference for just one animal in need. Along with her employment at HSCC, she also works at BEVS (Burlington Emergency and Veterinary Specialists), is the part-time Animal Control Officer for South Burlington and operates her own wildlife business providing humane solutions for homeowners when wildlife moves into their home. Shown with JoAnn is her side-kick, Lucinda. Lucinda was relinquished as part of a cruelty investigation and was nursed back to life by JoAnn. They are now a forever family.
KELLY SCHULZE: MOUNTAIN DOG PHOTOGRAPHY
Kelly Schulze is an award-winning Master Photographer and Certified Professional Photographer who specializes in studio and environmental animal portraiture. With her love and understanding of animal behavior, years of technical training, and a fast shutter finger she is able to consistently wow her clients with stunning, heartwarming portraits and an unforgettable experience.
Kelly is based out of Monkton, Vermont and travels throughout the northeast for on-location portrait sessions. She is also available for animal-related product photography and commercial licensing.
Kelly and her husband, Ian, are allowed to graciously share their home with five dogs (Logan, Jackson, Molly, JB, and Baloo), five cats (Luci, Bink, Dorie, Judy, and Masson), Scarlett the horse, and a flock of laying hens.
Mary Tracy: Dog Trainer
Mary knew from a very young age that pets, especially dogs, would be her passion in life. Mary has a vet tech background and started her own dog camp business called Unleashed K9 Adventures in 2017 while working part time at a local daycare where she eventually started teaching group training classes. Since then, she has taken multiple online courses and has passed the CPDT-KA dog training certification program. She is thrilled to be a part of the HSCC team and to have the opportunity to work with some amazing humans and dogs! In her free time, Mary likes to mountain bike, hike, and cross country ski with her husband and three dogs.
