Meet the Team

Let us introduce ourselves!

Founders

Jennifer Pease, President (and Ferdinand)

Jennifer has 15 years of direct, professional experience in the nonprofit, corporate, and animal rescue communities in areas of volunteering and fostering, human resources, management, development, administration, fundraising, grants, proposals, and events. At the Covestro Center for Community Engagement, she now focuses her efforts on creating community partnerships. Jennifer graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor's degree in English writing and maintains a public and professional writing certificate that focuses on nonprofit work.

In a volunteer capacity, Jennifer has held leadership positions in a number of local and national organizations, including Hello Bully, Family House, WYEP radio station, Humane Animal Rescue, Humane Society of the United States, and Steel City Road Runners Club. Previous titles have included board member, campaign committee member, mentor, coach, and liaison.

At Saint Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh, she currently is a lector and was a young adult ministry steering committee member. Most recently she was named to the North Boroughs YMCA advisory board as program committee member and annual campaign chair.

Her furry family consists of four rescued shelter cats (elder cats Mufasa Lee, Amelia Jane, Autumn Nicole, and Mister Bojangles) and a quirky pup named Coraline. She and her husband Michael live in the North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh PA with their rambunctious, curious, and kind toddler Gabriel. Contact Jen

Laura Latini, Vice President (and her dog Dino)

Laura has worked and volunteered in the Pittsburgh nonprofit community for most of her adult life. She has previously worked as a professional fundraiser at Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation, Family Services of Western PA, focusing on annual giving and event fundraising, and Development & Communications Manager at The Kingsley Association. She is currently associate director of annual giving at Carnegie Mellon University. Laura has a Bachelor's degree in Communications from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Duquesne University.

As a volunteer Laura has served local women's shelters and mentoring programs for youth. Laura has volunteered with Humane Animal Rescue as a team lead, committee member, mentor, cat cuddler, and foster parent for more than seven years. She has previously been the Volunteer Manager and a foster parent for Biggies Bullies, a non-profit organization devoted to rescuing, rehabilitating, and re-homing pit bull and bully breed-type dogs in Pittsburgh, PA and the surrounding areas, as well as educating the public on responsible pet ownership and the importance of spaying and neutering their pets.

Laura lives with her two rescued pit bulls, Millie and Dino. Laura also rescued two cats, Fizz and Indy. Contact Laura

Board Leadership

Lou Antosz

Lou is a life-long pet lover and especially dog lover – having had two dogs each for 15 years until they passed away. While he is an experienced volunteer working with many different charities throughout his life, this is his first extensive experience with pet advocacy. He is therefore able to bring some independent ideas to the team and capitalize on over 30 years of experience in the professional workforce.

While he manages a large team of IT employees by day, leading the team on a number of technical projects, he also enjoys being creative and enthusiastic at his job. He has an extroverted personality, but he is sure to listen closely to others, especially when working on a new assignment.

By night he enjoys volunteering with various agencies and church youth group and spending time with family. He also loves to be outdoors and to exercise. He has lived in Pittsburgh his entire life, and he attended college and graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh. Of course, this means he is a big Pittsburgh sports fan. He is eager to start work with the great team at SPAAR.

Laura Conrad

Laura is a long-time foster for vulnerable animal populations, particularly hospice, convalescent, and hand raised cats and kittens. She comes to SPAAR with unique knowledge and experiences in both animal behavior and veterinary medicine, including shelter, rescue, emergency, and critical care. She is also a certified Euthanasia Technician and seeks to give every animal in her care a dignified and compassionate life or death transition experience.

When she is not working with vulnerable animal populations, Laura spends time with her menagerie of nine cats and two dogs, fiancé, soon-to-be stepson, and parents. She enjoys reading, writing, coffee, yoga, and professional wrestling.

Christy Kuehn

Christy has worked in a variety of capacities with nonprofits in the Pittsburgh region since her time as a college student. Most of her experience professionally has been in the education sector, as she is passionate about student advocacy and educational equity. She believes that her upcoming work with SPAAR will draw on her drive to enable young people to better their communities and follow their passions, whether that passion is working with animals or creating new scientific models.
Christy has more than 10 years of experience as a high school English teacher, as well as 8 years of experience working at the college level as an instructor and academic advisor.

Currently, Christy works at the Consortium for Public Education as a Program Director. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English Education from Geneva College, a Master’s Degree in Literature from Arizona State University, and a PhD in Instructional Management and Leadership from Robert Morris University.

Christy lives with her 11-year-old diabetic Pomeranian, Foxy, who loves to cuddle and wear bowties.

Jennifer Popovich

Jennifer was born and raised in Aliquippa and currently lives in Hopewell Twp, Beaver County. A Quigley Catholic High School graduate and valedictorian, she attended Duquesne University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and in Classical Civilizations. She then attended the University Of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she was a finalist in the Murray S. Love Moot Court competition. She also acted as a teaching assistant in the legal writing program and lead managing editor of the Journal of Law and Commerce. She graduated with honors in 2002.

Upon graduation, she worked as a judicial law clerk in the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas. In 2003 she began working as an assistant public defender in the Beaver County Public Defender’s office. In 2005 she began working in the Beaver County District Attorney’s Office, where she remains today and holds the position of First Assistant District Attorney.

Jennifer has always had a profound love of animals, beginning with her very first dog Punky, a gift for her third birthday. From that point forward, Jennifer has never again lived without a dog, or a cat (or several). Jennifer began volunteering with Animal Friends, specifically working with animals with medical issues and working on the cat behavior team. This is where her love of hospice fostering began.

Jennifer served on the board of directors for the Beaver County Humane Society in 2014. She first became involved with Senior Pet and Animal Rescue in 2017, when she took in her first hospice foster for SPAAR, Milo. It was then that Jennifer knew that she finally found her home in the rescue world, a place focused on the elderly and special needs animals. Jennifer currently serves as a foster home and intake coordinator for SNORT- Short Noses Only Rescue Team, which focuses on pugs, English bulldogs, French bulldogs, and Boston terriers.

Dee Sherry

Dee has loved animals her whole life. Growing up, she and her family had dogs, cats, a bird, fish, several hamsters and the occasional salamander and hermit crab.

A strong proponent of animal adoption, Dee began her volunteer work with animals by participating in transports for rescue dogs with Travel 2 The Rescue and was hooked. She found it a very rewarding way to help get animals into rescues, foster families or to their new forever homes. When the Travel 2 The Rescue needed help arranging transports for animals all over the country, Dee jumped at the chance to help more.

When Dee isn’t running her marketing company, she likes to spend time with family and friends, taking on house projects that she almost always regrets starting, reading, crafting and most importantly, loving on her two rescue dogs, a mother-daughter duo, Izzy and Piper.

Community Partners

Cassie Conti, Manager of Social Media (and Sadie Dog)

Cassie began her volunteer career more than a decade ago, cleaning kennels, cat cages, and walking dogs at the Clarion County Humane Society, and has dedicated her life to the service of others.

Cassie’s passion for helping those in need has unfolded as she’s reached out to various nonprofit organizations. Using social media and Amazon wish lists, she is able to purchase gifts, home goods and grocery gift cards for local families in need. As a spin instructor, she has organized "spin-a-thons" to raise donations for those families and the animals at Humane Animal Rescue.

Cassie also volunteered at Humane Animal Rescue in other capacities, serving as a foster and dog jog mentor. Cassie was one of the Facebook managers for Paws Over Pittsburgh, the official Humane Animal Rescue and Wildlife Center's marathon charity group.

The mother of four, Cassie’s commitment to improving the lives of shelter animals is nurtured in her children, who assist Cassie with caring for foster cats and dogs, as well as raising money for animal-related causes. In 2012 and 2013, her daughter, Claire, through Cassie’s social media connections, raised nearly $10,000 in donations and goods.