Leadership
Executive Team
Jackie Roach
Chief Executive Officer
Jackie Roach brings a wealth of business experience to her role as CEO of Santa Fe Animal Shelter, having recently led the Home Furnishings business unit for Hayneedle.com, from the startup phase through meteoric growth and the eventual sale to Walmart.
Her passion for animal welfare began as a volunteer with the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha, NE, and led her to founding Taysia Blue Rescue, a foster-based, all-volunteer organization focused on rescuing Huskies and Malamutes. The rescue has an extensive volunteer network in Nebraska, Colorado, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Jackie directed the launch of the innovative Pet Resource Center with Best Friends Animal Society in Bentonville, Arkansas, leading efforts from the ground up. She collaborated closely with welfare leaders from across the United States and in the surrounding community as well as local rescue groups, veterinarians, city leaders, and foundations to bring the project’s vision to life.
A native of Nebraska, Jackie is passionate about Nebraska football. She enjoys live theater, good wine, and good coffee, and is an avid Disney fanatic and traveler. Jackie and her husband, Mike, are excited to call Santa Fe home; they share their home with three rescued Huskies and a Malamute named Walter, named after Walter Payton, because he exudes sweetness. Jackie is very honored to be part of such a generous community who loves their pets. Email: jroach@sfhumanesociety.org
Dylan Moore
Senior Director of Shelter Operations
Born in Missouri, Dylan has lived throughout the East Coast. With a degree in psychology, he spent 14 years doing social work. As Director of Shelter Operations, Dylan provides oversight to the departments involved in the internal care and flow of the shelter animals, including Admissions, Behavior & Training, Animal Care, Adoptions, Volunteers, and New Hope. His favorite time of year is hockey season, and when he’s not at the shelter, he’s hanging with his adorable young son. Dylan has been with the Santa Fe Animal Shelter for over ten years.
Email: dmoore@sfhumanesociety.org
Sarah Baeckler
Director of Development
Sarah has over 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership for animals, specializing in program development, fundraising (over $60m personally raised), organizational growth, and cross-sector collaboration. Sarah is a non-practicing attorney with a strong background in social sciences. She spent the early part of her career working with and for captive chimpanzees in the US, and then nearly a decade in SW Florida with Patty Baker Humane Society Naples in SW Florida.
In her spare time she chases her 6 dogs and 2 cats around the house, and has been known to chase her favorite musician Jason Isbell around the country.
Lex Gowans
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Originally from the humid beaches of South Florida, Lex often finds herself dreaming of the ocean breeze, but happily settles for the occasional kitty pool at the Shelter. As the Associate Director of Marketing and Communications, she’s always around to brainstorm a wild idea, lend a lint roller, or swoon over a dog with a particularly powerful underbite. Lex thrives on collaboration and loves turning a scribbled napkin thought into a full-blown campaign (preferably with snacks involved). When she’s not spreading the word about our lifesaving work, or petting every adoptable animal in a 10-foot radius, Lex is out exploring the beautiful mountains of New Mexico with her dogs, Stevie and Rosie. At home, she’s likely making art, lost in a book, or getting bossed around by her cat, usually all at once, ideally beneath a tree.
For all media inquiries please email Lex at lgowans@sfhumanesociety.org
Monica Gonzalez
Director of ARC, CASA, Licensing and Compassion Services
Shortly after completing a degree in Criminal Justice, Monica realized she preferred to work with animals. She now manages the Admissions department and licensing programs. Monica and her team work endlessly to reunite lost pets with their owners. She says experiencing that moment when a family is reunited with their lost pet keeps her coming to work every day. Monica enjoys a good boxing match, football, and cooking.
Lizzy Ratnaraj, CPA
Senior Director of Finance
Lizzy Ratnaraj serves as the Senior Director of Finance at Santa Fe Animal Shelter, where she leads the organization’s accounting, finance, and human resources functions. Originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Lizzy moved to Albuquerque in 1991. She brings more than 26 years of public and nonprofit financial leadership experience to her role at SFAS. Her extensive career includes overseeing the Audit and Compliance Division at the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, serving as CFO and Director of the Administrative Services Division at the Department of Finance and Administration, and holding the position of CFO at the State Treasurer’s Office. She also worked as CFO for a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing legal services to low-income individuals.
Lizzy holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Madras, an MBA from New Mexico Highlands University, and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the State of New Mexico. Lizzy enjoys time with her family outside of work, including her two daughters and their four beloved (and spirited!) dogs: Mocha, Latte, Cinnamon, and Pluto. If she’s not at her desk, there’s a good chance she’s out enjoying the sunshine with her pups. She also loves cooking and entertaining—according to staff, her key lime pie is legendary.
Dr. Valerie Moser
Shelter Clinic Medical Director
Dr. Valerie Moser joined SFAS as Medical Director for the shelter clinic in late August 2025. A graduate of Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Moser began her career in private veterinary practice in her home state of Arizona. There, she developed an interest in the needs of animals in large municipal shelters.
Her career then took her to the Midwest, where she played a key role in establishing Kansas City's second veterinary technician school and where she met her husband. They later returned to Arizona, where Dr. Moser dedicated her expertise to shelter medicine, working at many of the leading shelters in the Phoenix metropolitan area. She became highly proficient in high-quality, high-volume spay and neuter surgery (HQHVSN), providing relief services to numerous spay and neuter clinics and serving as Medical Director for three private practices across the Phoenix-Tucson corridor.
Most recently, Dr. Moser was the Chief Veterinarian at Orange County Animal Services in Orlando, Florida, following her husband's transfer. Missing the mountains and Southwest climate, Dr. Moser and her family have now relocated to Santa Fe. She looks forward to becoming an integral part of the shelter and enjoys all the outdoor and dining opportunities Santa Fe offers.
Email: vmoser@sfhumanesociety.or
Dr. Michelle Salob
Shelter Clinic Veterinarian
Dr. Salob, a graduate of Tufts Veterinary School, has devoted her veterinary career to the practice of shelter medicine. She loves being an advocate for the animals who need it most and serving the community of Santa Fe.
Dr. T. Murt Byrne
Thaw Animal Hospital Veterinarian
T.Murt Byrne DVM has been practicing veterinary medicine in New Mexico for 37 years. He is a proud Lobo, graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1984 with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. He then moved to Fort Collins, Colorado to begin his postgraduate Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University. Graduating in 1988, he returned to New Mexico. After practicing for a year in Albuquerque, he accepted a position here in Santa Fe.
In 1994, he opened the Eldorado Animal Clinic, in what was then, the community of Eldorado. Beginning as a small clinic, over the years EAC grew to a 5 doctor, 7,000sq ft facility. In August of 2021, Dr. Murt retired. He found that he was not very good at retirement. Late 2022, he was happy to return to work a few days a week at the Clare Eddy Thaw Animal Hospital. He reports he has never been happier practicing, "It's really all I've ever been good at. I love the staff, clients, and patients at Thaw".
In his spare time, Dr. Murt is remodeling a property in Las Vegas, NM. He enjoys traveling, and watching sports, especially the Lobos.
Dr. Jillian Dougherty
Thaw Animal Hospital Veterinarian
Dr. Dougherty joined our team in May 2021 after almost 13 years in private practice and several years in Emergency Medicine, with both a small animal and equine emphasis. Jillian is from Lafayette, LA but spent many years in Texas, Mississippi, and Montana before finding her forever home in Glorieta, NM. She received her Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M in Animal Science, a Master of Science in Equine Nutrition, and her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Mississippi State University. Her outside interests include gardening, cooking, karate, painting, trail running, hiking, horseback riding, and skiing. Jillian and her husband Tab share their home with their Malamute (Adele), cats (Zen and The Dude), and horses (Doc and Sherpa).
Dr. Zachary Snable, DVM
Thaw Animal Hospital Veterinarian
Dr Snable joined the Thaw Animal Hospital team in early 2025, moving from California with his wife and two young children. After graduating from Yale University in 2003, he obtained his DVM at Ross University and completed clinical training at the University of Florida in 2008. He has experience in small animal medicine and surgery in private practice, house call hospice/euthanasia, and high volume/high quality spay and neuter services. His main professional interests lie in taking on challenging surgical cases and wound management.
The Snables decided to relocate from central California to Santa Fe to be closer to family and enjoy the scenery/outdoor offerings that the southwest has to offer. His interests include offshore saltwater and fly fishing, rockhounding/lapidary work, exploring the outdoors, traveling and gardening. Active in Cavalier King Charles Rescue, their current pack currently includes 1 deaf dog, 2 parvo survivors, a congenital heart disease hospice case and one that collapses with excitement.
Barbara Klein
Associate Director of Retail Sales
Barbara is a California native but has spent time in Florida and now New Mexico. Her working career started as a Graphic Designer when Macs were small boxes with the tiniest of screens. With a strong affection for all animals, Barbara, as a child, showed her Grand Champion Southdown ram through the 4-H program, later in high-school she went around southern California showing her quarter horse, Rey de Noche.
Later while raising a family, Barbara also had many birds from parakeets to Macaws. Having one dog would just not do, Barbara always had a “pack” of dogs and always that special one that needed medical attention or behavior training. It was then that she started her second career as a Veterinary Assistant and Veterinary Technician. This started in Palm Spring California and continued. In Florida she was the Assistant Shelter Manager of the Gulf Coast Humane Society.
When she moved to New Mexico she worked in a private veterinary hospital and then found Santa Fe Animal Shelter as her home. Starting as a Veterinary Assistant and after many years moved into the Thaw Assistant Manager for 3-years. She then moved to the Development Team where she could still be involved with the animals by office fostering many many dogs.
After a little over 2-years in that position it was time to utilize her talents more and move into The Cat Resale Stores, where organizing and developed an awesome sales team to become the Best of Santa Fe Thrift store! She now is the Director of Retail Sale for Santa Fe Animal Shelter. Barbara likes to push the retail limits and has been known to take on projects and merchandise that are unsaleable. Her Team and managers support the cause to raise donations for Santa Fe Animal shelter by offering the BEST in Santa Fe!
Email: bklein@sfhumanesociety.org
Tom Alexander
Humane Education Coordinator
Hailing from Texas, Tom graduated from Texas A&M and spent his business career in Philadelphia, PA. In 2000, he retired to gorgeous Santa Fe. As the Humane Education Coordinator for the shelter, Tom works hard to educate young people in our community. He knows that if spay/neuter efforts are going to grow, and if animal abuse and neglect is going to be reduced, it has to begin in the hearts and minds of New Mexico’s young people.
Board of Directors
The Santa Fe Animal Shelter is governed by a Board of Directors, each of whom brings a deep commitment to the animals and people of our community. To contact our Board of Directors, please email board@sfhumanesociety.org.
Sheila Vaughn
Board Chair
Sheila is a native of Illinois, but spent most of her adult life in Southern California. After receiving her Ph.D. in psychology, she had a private practice and taught at UC Irvine for 20 years. Since moving to Santa Fe 10 years ago, Sheila has continued her private practice and does consultation with couples in the collaborative divorce process. In her free time, when not being trained by her flat-coated retriever, she does volunteer work, reads, hikes and looks forward to post-pandemic movie-going and traveling.
Diana Brown
Vice Chair
Diana grew up in Minneapolis, lived primarily in Los Angeles, and retired full time to Santa Fe with her husband and three rescue dogs in 2020 after having lived here part-time for almost 15 years.
Diana received a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University and a JD from the University of Michigan. Prior to her retirement, Diana practiced health care law in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Diana enjoys hiking, traveling throughout the Southwest and learning to play tennis.
Elizabeth Rice
Secretary & Treasurer
Elizabeth has lived in Santa Fe since 1977 and has served on many boards including Girls' Inc, Santa Fe Community Foundation, and Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary. Her background in nonprofit experience as well as strategic planning, policy development and finance will benefit our board going forward. Elizabeth has a big dog named Bear.
Bill Feinberg
Board Member
William "Bill" Feinberg is the President of Dorsar Investment Partners and related entities, a diversified investment holding company primarily focusing on various types of private capital / equity, real estate, and other alternative asset classes. Bill is responsible for all aspects of running Dorsar including sourcing and performing due diligence on new investments, financial and analysis and reporting, shareholder relations, estate planning, accounting, and tax / audit. Bill joined Dorsar in 2008. Prior to Dorsar, Bill held various positions at Washington Mutual Bank in Seattle, WA, Staenberg Venture Partners, for Microsoft Corp and for Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
In addition to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, Bill currently serves on the boards of the Nature Conservancy of New Mexico (as chair), and Communities in Schools of New Mexico. He is also a member of the finance and endowment committees at Rio Grande School.
Bill has a B.A. in political science and minor in Spanish from Skidmore College and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University focusing on finance and strategy. Bill resides in Santa Fe, NM with his wife Ariana, their 2 sons Noah (14) and Max (11) and their dog Willy Bear.
Kris Michaelis
Board Member
Kris and her husband, Kenny Goldstein, moved to Santa Fe from Walnut Creek, CA in 2002 and have loved the NM culture, outdoor activities, community engagement and philantropic activities ever since.
A retired human resource and organization development consultant, she has worked as a volunteer and/or board member for Challenge New Mexico, Assistance Dogs of the West, Girls Inc. of Santa Fe, Alliance for Gun Violence Solutions and the Santa Fe Branch of the NAACP. She has effectively lobbied the NM legislature in the areas of social, health and housing equity, sexual harassment investigations by independent parties and now for minimizing gun violence through reasonable gun access laws. In her spare time she often volunteers for ADW, socializing dogs in training to become service dogs, hiking (often with them) and working on her art.
Love of animals, especially dogs, has been a part of her life since she was five when her family owned an English Springer Spaniel known for killing water moccasins (of all things!) at her family's farm in south central Alabama. She and Kenny had a Santa Fe Animal Shelter adoptee, Sidney, a black Lab rescued near Edgewood, for 12 years.
Deborah Phillips
Board Member
Deborah first fell in love with Santa Fe as a college student and now divides her time between her home here and in Philadelphia where her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter live. She also has a daughter who is a music therapy intern at Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel hospital in New York City. Deborah has held academic positions as Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and Georgetown University, and has also served as President of the Foundation for Child Development and Director of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families at the National Academies. In addition to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, she currently serves on the board of FrameWorks, a strategic communications non-profit organization based in Washington DC and London, and continues to be engaged in research on early childhood education. Rescue dogs have been beloved members of her family since childhood; she and her husband, John, now get to spoil Alice, a 16-year old rescue dog from Washington DC and Lucy, a 7-year old rescue from the Santa Fe Shelter. In her spare time, she volunteers at the Shelter, gardens, hikes, reads, knits, and gathers for leisurely meals with friends.
Carlos V. Duno
Board Member
Mr. Duno is the owner and Chief Executive Officer of Cduno Coaching & Consulting. He is an Exit Planner with Navix and is certified as an Executive Coach by the Hudson Institute of Coaching, a leader in the coaching field. Mr. Duno also collaborates with Sam Goldenberg and Associates, the premier business broker in Northern New Mexico.
Until 2019, Mr. Duno was the owner of The Hire Firm, a leader in Executive Recruiting and Staffing Services in Northern New Mexico. From 2001 until 2004, Mr. Duno served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clean Fuels Technology, a leading developer of emulsified fuels for transportation and power generation. From July 1995 to May 2001, Mr. Duno worked at Vitro S.A. in Monterrey, Mexico, a $3 billion glass company, as President and COO, as well as being responsible for Business Development and Planning. He also oversaw Talent Development. Prior to 1995, Mr. Duno served in senior domestic and international management roles at Scott Paper Company. The first ten years of his career included international assignments with McKinsey and Co., where he served a broad base of clients in a variety of assignments for four years, as well as Eli Lilly, where he held both domestic and international positions.
From 2003 until 2019, Mr. Duno was a director of Libbey, Inc. (NYSE:LBY), a publicly traded company in the glass industry, where he served as Chairman of the Compensation Committee and the Audit Committee. He was also a member of the N&G Committee.
Mr. Duno is very active in the Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico Community having served on the Boards of the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, Espanola Humane and currently as the Treasurer of Congregation Beit Tikva.
Mr. Duno has a BS in Industrial Engineering from the National University of Mexico, an MS in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA from Columbia University in New York. He has lived and worked in Latin America, the US, and Europe and has traveled extensively to Asia. He is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and conversational in Italian, French, and German.
Mr. Duno and his wife, Barbara have been volunteering for Santa Fe Humane Society for over 20 years and have adopted many dogs from the Shelter, including four of their current lot. They also foster kittens regularly.
Chris Garner
Board Member
Chris is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and currently serves as the Partner in Charge of the Albuquerque Audit Department for Pattillo, Brown & Hill, LLP. With over 30 years of auditing experience across various public accounting firms, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership to his role. He has also demonstrated a strong commitment to community service, having served in leadership roles, including President and Treasurer, on several nonprofit boards. His board service includes the New Mexico Museum of Natural History Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico, and Birth to Three.
Heather England
Board Member
Heather and her husband Gordon, along with their animals, made a life-changing move from Sausalito, California, to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2020. The transition was a long time coming; they had been visiting the city for years and living in Santa Fe had been a dream of Heather’s since she first visited as a teenager. After living and working on both coasts, they were eager to enjoy Santa Fe’s high desert, with its abundance of sunshine, unique nature, dramatic light, and more relaxed pace.
Heather is a highly experienced business operations leader with a strong passion for animal welfare. She has spent over 25 years driving growth and profitability for global technology public relations, marketing, and creative agencies. Recently retired from her COO role at Method Communications, she’s now a strategic advisor to both the Executive and Operations teams. Heather is adept at aligning organizational vision through executive coaching, talent strategy, and financial oversight. Her expertise includes navigating hyper-growth and downturns, managing acquisitions, developing new services, and optimizing business operations and culture to ensure long-term, sustainable success.
In addition to her professional career, Heather has been a dedicated volunteer at Santa Fe Animal Shelter since 2021, focusing on K-9 enrichment and adoptions support. She has been actively involved in animal rescue for over a decade. She has also volunteered with Bay Area CISPES and Reading Partners. She and her husband share a home with rescue cat (Pie), and five rescue dogs (Nela, Beijo, Barley, Zasu, and Henny) two of whom are alumni of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter.
Heather holds a BA in International Media Studies and has the unique qualification of holding a Certificate in Dairy Arts & Sciences (aka cheesemaking).
