PAWS TO FREEDOM

Board of Directors

Jennifer Sonntag, Secretary

Having moved to Portland from Philadelphia in August '08, Jennifer spent several months volunteering with local non-profits while job hunting within Higher Education. Securing a position at the Portland Community College Foundation as the Alumni & Annual Fund Officer was a dream-come-true, as no other institution with which she's worked compares to the nourishing and sustainable environment at PCC. Fortunately, though her volunteer work with PCC, she found the same level of passion and dedication at Paws to Freedom and was inspired to become a "permanent" volunteer. She joined the Paws to Freedom Board in March of 2009 and currently serves as the Treasurer and Secretary. Prior to her move to the "Best Coast", Jennifer worked with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Georgia State University in Atlanta, and the University of Florida in Gainesville. She received her B.H.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling at UF and took Master's courses while at GSU. What really floats her boat? Music, cycling, golden retrievers, green efforts, hugs, and friends!

Windy Short, Officer

Windy has a bachelor's degree in English and has experience with marketing, editing, writing, layout, computers, and accounting. Through her experiences training with horses in dressage and eventing at both commercial and private stables, she has a deeper understanding of how important animals can become to people. Service dogs are the epitome of a perfect symbiosis between humans and animals. Windy has been involved with Paws to Freedom since 2007 and has been working to support their mission to educate and provide better opportunities for both dogs and humans to find those deeper connections.

Robert Kennedy, Treasurer

Robert has worked as a Financial Planner for over 15 years. Robert created his firm, Pride Financial Planners, that specializes in individuals and families who have special needs. Having a nephew with advanced autism and severe allergies, Robert is on a personal mission to assist those needing support from a four-legged companion. Robert breeds service quality Multi Generational Australian Labradoodles to help those needing a service dog that also suffer from severe animal allergies. Robert rescued abused shepherds and fostered them back to adoption quality for several years in San Francisco, CA. He currently volunteers as a big brother, delivers food for meals on wheels with his four legged family members and does therapy dog visits at several locations through Oregon. Robert moved to Portland Oregon in 2003 where he lives with his Partner Scott and their four Labradoodles (Logan, Lexus, Meisha and Snickers) in SW Portland. Robert is currently working on becoming an accredited service/therapy dog trainer.

Mara Windstar, President and Founder

Mara has an associate degree in general studies with emphasis on special education and development of recreational program activities for people with disabilities. Her contributions in the special education field included behavior modification plans and individualized activity planning for involvement in the community.

With nine years of dog training experience, Mara is thankful for the journey of owner-training her own service dog. She combines her daily life experiences of living with multiple health challenges along with her extensive training, and commits to walking the Service Dog Journey with others on a daily basis through her training, mentoring and friendships.

Living in an intentional community with like-minded friends for 15 years, her tag line of "Believing and Serving in community, because every being matters", has taken on further meaning as her vision of Paws to Freedom becoming a community program comes to fruition by gathering community members together in support of Service Dog Partnerships.