About Us

Woods Humane Society is a nonprofit organization which receives no tax funds, but is supported by donations, grants, bequests, fundraising events and fees for services. Woods is independent of San Luis Obispo County Animal Services, but works in close cooperation with them and other animal groups in the county for the welfare of all animals.

Woods now cares for over 3,000 cats and dogs each year at our facilities in San Luis Obispo and Atascadero until they can be united with loving forever families. We accept surrendered pets from our local community members if they are no longer able to care for them, and transfer animals in from over crowded shelters both locally and from other areas of California. Woods is committed to finding loving homes for all healthy and treatable pets, no matter how long it takes. With our behavior and veterinary resources, we are able to go the extra mile for animals in need.

As part of our commitment to work towards ending pet overpopulation, not only is every animal at Woods spayed or neutered, we also provide low-cost spay and neuter services for San Luis Obispo County Animal Services, many other local rescue organizations, and for owned animals in our county. Our medical team has performed nearly 40,000 spay/neuter surgeries in the Woods-Cashin Surgery Center since its opening in 2007. The Humane Education Program offers a wide range of activities for tots to teens and provides insight and enrichment for the next generation of animal advocates. Our Behavior and Training Department provides expert care for dogs in our adoption program as well as dog obedience training classes for the public, designed to keep pets in their homes and out of shelters. Financial support from donors and the dedication of our staff and hundreds of volunteers ensure the success of our work.

Our Mission

Our mission is to serve, protect and shelter homeless companion animals; to place animals into humane environments; to promote responsible pet ownership, provide humane education, and reduce animal overpopulation; and to celebrate the human-animal bond.

Meet Our Board of Directors

Dr. Jo Campbell

Board president

Jo Campbell has worked in higher education for over 40 years. She currently serves as the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at Cal Poly, joining the institution in 2016. After living in the Midwest for over 30 years, she is enjoying San Luis Obispo’s temperate climate and proximity to the ocean. She has done many years of volunteer work with humane societies in the Midwest with cats and kittens and joined the Woods Board in 2018. She loves traveling with her wife, cuddling with their cat G, and taking lots of pictures of landscapes and wildlife.

Lisa Adams

Vice President

Lisa Adams has spent the past 33 years in banking. She currently works for Mechanics Bank as a Vice President/Branch Manager. Lisa previously served on the Woods Humane Society Board from 2012 – 2018. Lisa was honored to ask to return to the board and has been serving since 2022. Lisa is passionate about finding animals homes. She owns two rescue dogs herself, Tally (7) and Luna (1). She has two sons that live locally, one daughter-in-law and one soon to be daughter-in-law and one grandson. She spends her free time with her family and dogs.

Bruno Giberti

Secretary

Bruno Giberti is an architect and architectural historian who has worked at Cal Poly since 1994. He shares a pack with husband Kent and two rescued dachshund mixes, Olive and Bosie.

Autumn Clark

Treasurer

Autumn Clark has been in finance for over 20 years. She currently works for Mission Bank as a Business Banker III. She has served on the Woods Humane Society board since 2021. She is a long-time resident of SLO County and is passionate about assisting homeless animals in finding a happy and safe home. In 2020, Autumn began fostering cats and kittens and in her spare time she loves to travel with her husband and son.

Marcia Torgerson

Board Member

Marcia Torgerson has lived in Atascadero since 1979. She was involved with Action for Animals Rights in the early 1980’s which later became the North County Humane Society and now is Woods Humane Society North County. She served the City of Atascadero as the elected city clerk for 20 years and she also worked in the city manager’s office for 18 years, retiring as the deputy city manager in 2015. Marcia feels strongly about the education of community members regarding the importance of spay/neuter and she is passionate about assisting homeless animals in finding a happy and safe home.

Cory Karpin

Board Member

Cory Karpin has been in nonprofit leadership and fundraising for more than 20 years, including four years as the Executive Director of Woods Humane Society (2011-2015). He is honored to have the opportunity to serve the organization now as a member of the Board of Directors.

Cory lives in SLO with his wife, two daughters, two Woods cats, and two Woods dogs. Oh, and there’s a horse, too (Salena). When he’s not working at Cal Poly, he’s usually hiking, fishing, paddle boarding or playing fetch in the backyard.

Jen Melton

Board Member

Jen Melton has a passion for animals and small business. She’s founded two successful pet-sector companies and turns innovative ideas into purpose-driven enterprises.

Jen lives in San Luis Obispo with her two daughters and Woods Humane alum pup, Lucy. In her free time, Jen enjoys exploring unconventional travel locations…unconventionally. When closer to home, Jen loves taking in breathtaking landscapes of the Central Coast, hiking, paddle boarding and connecting with nature.

Scott Bloom

Board Member at Large

Scott joined the Board of Directors in July 2023 following participation in Leadership SLO, Class 30. Scott grew up on the Central Coast and brings 30+ years of experience in construction and facility management. Serving as Campus Planner at Cal Poly, Scott’s focus is on environmental quality, sustainability, and strategic planning on circulation and transportation projects. Scott holds a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering and a master’s degree in public policy, both honors from Cal Poly. Scott and husband Kenji are passionate about animal care and love. Their devotion to animal wellness and cherishing the human-pet bond has led to adopting and rescuing many pets. They share their home in Nipomo with Mie, Chibi, Tan-Tan, Popo, Gin, Kin, Yaki, and a pond of swimmers. Scott is thrilled to support our mission in saving and enhancing lives.

Ty Green

Board Member

Meet Our Leadership Team

Emily L'Heureux

CEO

(805) 540-2396 Email Emily

About Emily

As CEO, Emily actively connects with Woods' supporters, helping them in any way she can. With Woods being privately funded, we rely solely on the generosity of the community and taking excellent care of these generous people is something Emily considers a privilege.

Woods Humane Society is an organization that does LIFE SAVING and TRANSFORMING work every day and it is for this reason that Woods matters so much to Emily. Seeing animals, that were once scared in the shelter, flourishing in their safe and happy homes is a huge source of motivation.

Along with being an advocate of adoption, Emily is a lifelong volunteer. She is currently serving as: Vice President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (San Luis Obispo chapter); founding Board Member of Junior League of the Central Coast; steering committee member for VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster); and member of the South County YMCA Advisory Committee. She has always had a house full of rescued animals and her current group includes four year-old shepherd-mix Ranger and kitten Nirmal, both adopted from Woods.

Julia Bixby

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

About Julia

Julia graduated from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science. Before coming to Woods, she spent seventeen years working in Animal Control in both San Diego and Santa Barbara Counties, most recently as the Shelter Supervisor at Santa Barbara County Animal Services. Julia lives with a small menagerie of animals. She has three dogs, an African Grey, a Sulcata tortoise, and two rabbits. During her free time, Julia enjoys working with her dogs, doing activities such as scent work, showing, hiking, and camping and hanging out with her tortoise.

Jamie Relth

Director of development

About Jamie

Jamie brings nearly 20 years of communications, advertising and marketing experience, nine years of non-profit sector experience, and four years of non-profit development experience to the role of Director of Development.

Formerly the editor of a regional lifestyle magazine as well as a senior writer, account executive, and branding consultant at several marketing and PR firms, she has served Woods Humane Society since 2015. Her past roles at Woods include overseeing organizational messaging across all media channels as Communications Manager during a time of record-breaking growth in the Development Department. She began her journey with Woods in the Humane Education department, growing the program's reach by 150 percent.

In her work, Jamie draws on her depth of professional experience as well as on her enduring passion for animal welfare. She hopes to connect members of our compassionate community with meaningful purpose and impact by facilitating opportunities to support Woods' lifesaving work.

A proud Woods "foster-failure," she spends much of her free time hanging out with her cat and dog, as well as enjoying the beautiful Central Coast through running, swimming, hiking, climbing, cycling and other outdoor activities.

Dr. Amanda Hefner, DVM

DIRECTOR OF veterinary services

About Dr. Hefner

Dr. Amanda Hefner is a California native and completed her Animal Science degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She then earned her DVM at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine with an emphasis in equine medicine and completed a one-year internship following graduation. She then continued north to work at a small animal and equine private practice in Chico, CA, where she fell in love with caring for companion animals. She and her family decided to relocate back to the Central Coast, which has held her heart since her undergraduate days.

Dr. Hefner served as an animal care volunteer at Woods Humane Society during her college career and adopted the first dog in her adult life from WHS in 2012. Pebbles, an adorable and slightly neurotic border collie, turned out to be her best girl and one of the best decisions she ever made. WHS has always held a special place in her heart, and she was thrilled to join the WHS medical team in 2021.

Outside of the clinic, she enjoys reading, gardening, and horseback riding, as well as spending time with her husband and their crew of dogs, cats, and horses.

Robin Coleman

community engagement MANAGER

About Robin

After many years in property management Robin was ready for a change and she found it when she moved to the Central Coast. After a few months spent getting settled, she wandered into Woods Humane Society, “just looking,” and immediately fell in love with a dog named Dexter and that is when both their lives were changed forever. Robin believes in the importance of the human-animal bond and loves to celebrate how special our companion animals are to us.

During that process Robin also fell in love with Woods, and was thrilled to start her career at Woods as Customer Service Supervisor where she got to combine her love of animals and love of working with people. She has also fulfilled the role of Volunteer Coordinator and Adoption Program Manager over the years at Woods.

Now as Community Engagement Manager, Robin is responsible for developing relationships through targeted outreach and increasing public awareness of Woods Humane Society’s various programs, services and initiatives. Robin often refers to Woods as her “Happy Place.”

When she's not at work, you can find Robin spending time at the beach, cuddling with Dexter, going on walks, trying new restaurants and just enjoying the beauty that the Central Coast landscape offers.

Janell Matthies

VETERINARY SERVICES SUPERVISOR

About Janell

Janell Matthies joined the Woods team in April 2021. Janell first became actively involved in animal welfare as a volunteer over 30 years ago. She has worked professionally in emergency animal rescue with various national organizations for the last 13 years, primarily working on large scale cruelty cases and disaster response. She is currently in the process of earning her RVT license. She is a recent transplant from Northern California and is enjoying living the Central Coast life in Morro Bay with her BFF Sammy, a 17-year-old poodle mix.

Catherine Armstrong

volunteer & event coordinator

About Catherine

It didn’t take very long for Catherine to realize that the missing piece of her college experience was giving back to the local community in the very best way: by loving on the dogs and cats at Woods who were patiently waiting for forever families! An avid animal lover, Catherine grew up in the Bay Area volunteering in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation and then moved to the Central Coast in 2011 to pursue a degree in another one of her passions – music. During her time at Cal Poly, she was fortunate enough to receive “fur therapy” from the adoptable Woods dogs amidst finals week, and immediately signed up for the next orientation.

Catherine officially joined the Woods team as an employee in the summer of 2015 as the Critter Camp Counselor. She then worked in both the Customer Service and Animal Care departments before assuming the role of Volunteer Coordinator. Catherine comes to work eager to lead a team of like-minded and dedicated volunteers who help make Woods’ mission a reality.

On her days off Catherine can be found strolling down the beach, reading a good book, or enjoying the company of friends and family.

Eric Stockam, CPDT-KA

ADOPTIONS PROGRAM SUPERVISOR

About Eric

Eric Stockam moved to the Central Coast 6 years ago after growing up in El Dorado Hills, California. Eric began working with dogs over 7 years ago and got his start at the El Dorado County Animal Shelter where he both volunteered as well as fostered dogs and cats.

Eric began working for Woods Humane Society as an Animal Caregiver and quickly applied his interest in canine behavior, fulfilling the requirements to become a nationally certified dog trainer (CPDT-KA) in late 2016, with the mentorship of our Behavior & Training Manager, Michelle Rizzi. Prior to working as a full-time dog trainer Eric’s employment has included veterinary assistant, grooming assistant, pet sitter, and animal caregiver.