Board of Directors

Esther Mechler – President & Founder

Esther had a previous life in social work, guidance/student personnel, and law school admissions. In 1990, she plunged into a new life when she started SPAY/USA. Motivated by the plight of the many wonderful cats at the Bridgeport, CT animal shelter with no prospects of finding a good home, she realized that the only solution was to prevent unplanned litters. By doing so, a great deal of suffering could be avoided. That has been her focus ever since.

Esther started SPAY/USA to bring together vets and clinics offering affordable, accessible spay/neuter services. Within three years, a network of well over a thousand vets and clinics had been developed across the country, and the program moved to the North Shore Animal League. Esther ran the program until 2010.

Leaders of the state spay/neuter referral programs that had evolved over the prior couple of years expressed interest in becoming more proactive, going beyond referral to recruitment, marketing, policy, and social media to spread the word within their own geographic areas.

These were the roots of the United Spay Alliance, which became a nonprofit organization in 2015. The goal of this animal welfare organization is to reduce animal suffering by working to ensure that every cat and dog born has an excellent chance of finding a loving, permanent home.

Peter Marsh, Esq – Vice President

For the past thirty years, Peter Marsh has helped government agencies, foundations, humane organizations, and advocacy groups throughout the United States develop and implement animal protection programs. During that time, he has helped put together successful statewide animal-related legislative initiatives in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and Vermont.

More recently, Peter has authored two books about programs to end animal shelter overpopulation in the United States: Getting to Zero: A Roadmap to Ending Animal Shelter Overpopulation in the United States (2012), and Replacing Myth with Math: Using Evidence-Based Programs to Eradicate Shelter Overpopulation (2010). He has also helped make a documentary film about progressive animal shelters in his home state of New Hampshire.

Stacy LeBaron – Treasuer & Strategic Director

Stacy LeBaron has been involved in animal welfare for over 20 years. She spent 16 years as president of the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society and currently hosts the Community Cats Podcast (CCP), interviewing cat welfare experts and others involved in helping cats around the country and the world. Since starting CCP in 2016, Stacy has recorded over 350 episodes and published an equal number of blog posts. CCP has assisted over 100 community cat groups around the country through its fundraising mentorship and matching grants program. CCP also holds two virtual conferences annually, plus other online training opportunities. An expert in her field, Stacy provides consulting services to individuals and groups looking to improve effectiveness and efficiency. She also volunteers in an advisory capacity with the shelter medicine committee at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has served on the board of several animal welfare groups. She currently serves as administrative trustee for the LeBaron Foundation and facilitates two Massachusetts coalitions. A graduate of Vassar College, Stacy lives in Vermont with her husband and son.

Melanie Anderson

Melanie Anderson has been with the Summerlee Foundation since its formation in early 1989 and assisted the donor, Annie Lee Roberts, with the creation of the animal program and its funding priorities. Melanie served as program director for 33 years and is currently a board member of the Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she also worked as a volunteer for a variety of animal protection organizations throughout the United States as well as conducting her own feral cat rescue in Dallas, Texas.

Through the Summerlee Foundation, she has implemented and participated in several strategic initiatives including the creation of the animal grantmaking database (Animal Funding Atlas), developing and funding sustainable model programs to humanely address the dog and cat overpopulation crisis in Mexico as well as the Sunny Summit Initiative to address the trade of captive orcas and whales in the entertainment industry and the critical need for rehabilitation and sanctuary.

A. Michelle Gonzalez, DVM

Dr. G is the founder and Medical Director of the Rascal Unit, a mobile veterinary practice providing affordable and accessible sterilization and wellness care for animals throughout the State of Ohio since 2006. She is also the director of Rascal Charities, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit that helps subsidize the cost of sterilization, wellness, and medical care to individuals in need of financial assistance, provides special programs such as community cat TNR and Pit Fix, and promotes education in animal welfare.

Dr. G graduated from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1999, and holds M.S. degrees in Veterinary Forensics, Forensic Psychology, and Forensic Science and utilizes this knowledge to aid in the investigation and prosecution of animal cruelty and neglect cases with both local and national humane organizations. In an effort to bring awareness to animal welfare issues, she is the creator and host of the Animal Welfare Junction podcast. Dr. G aims to use her experience and education to help improve the quality of life of both animals and humans.

Kathie Nelson

Kathie Nelson is a founding member and the current President of the Oregon Spay/Neuter Fund, a grassroots animal advocacy organization active since the early 1980’s. OSNF is also the Oregon affiliate of the United Spay Alliance.

Through her work with OSNF and USA, she has operated a spay and neuter referral services for many years, and helps find the best options for each individual client, addressing barriers such as cost, location, transportation that can keep guardians from spaying and neutering their dogs and cats.

Kathie is happy that in many parts of Oregon through its groundbreaking discount coupon program and work with progressive area veterinarians, comprehensive knowledge of other programs available regionally, as well as directly subsidizing the costs for low income individuals, many parts of Oregon have seen significant decreases in animals entering shelters and vast improvement in the quality of life for companion animals, especially true for feral cats.

Cheri Storms

Cheri Storms has served in the animal welfare field since 2005. During her tenure with Pet Friendly Services of Indiana, she has helped grow the organization from a regional service provider to a statewide leader with the mission of dramatically reducing the numbers of unplanned and unwanted litters of cats and dogs – as well as protecting outdoor dogs and cats.

Pet Friendly Services provides free spay/neuter surgeries to rescue groups and shelters and also provides low-cost surgeries to limited-income residents. Our partnership with 125 veterinarians makes this possible.

Filling unique needs is another task undertaken by Pet Friendly Services. Local ordinance updates, improving state legislation, launching the Indiana Animal Welfare Conference, and creating the Community Cat Guide for elected officials are examples of unmet needs that Pet Friendly Services addresses.

Cheri holds an undergraduate degree from Indiana University Bloomington, and a master’s degree in Public & Environmental Affairs from IU Indianapolis. She and her husband enjoy the companionship of five indoor cats and two outdoor cats.

W. Marvin Mackie, DVM – Honorary

In 1976, Dr. W. Marvin Mackie discovered his mission with the effort to humanely control pet overpopulation. Partnered with a colleague, he opened a spay/neuter clinic each year for the next six years. Breaking ground by demonstrating new standards of production, he transformed the image and status of the spay/neuter clinic. In 1989, he began promoting early-age spay/neuter by distributing a well-done amateur video demonstrating the ease with which the surgery could be performed and the rapid recovery of his young patients. In 1991, he partnered with stakeholders to effectively include feral cats. During his last full year of clinic ownership in 2007, he added 1,562 ferals to the clinic’s scheduled 7,276 patients using his efficient, minimally invasive, safe surgical system.

“We must include affordable spay/neuter in our menu of services to the pet community,” says Dr. Mackie. “A clinic can easily and profitably provide this service by gaining confidence in surgical skills and eliminating unnecessary steps that add nothing to the successful outcome of the surgery. Only since the veterinary community began to address the issue of pet overpopulation (birthing beyond ownership capacity) as a serious problem, can it be said that the profession is now doing its part in the effort to humanely reduce pet overpopulation.

Dr. Mackie has lectured, taught, and conducted “wet labs” throughout the United States and in many other countries. Having performed some 250,000 spay/neuter surgeries, he has earned worldwide recognition as a spay/neuter specialist.