Karen Kelley

With three decades of experience, Karen has made a career in non-profit animal welfare. In 1992, she moved from Indiana to Southern California where she obtained a degree in Urban Geography and Environmental Studies from UCLA. Karen worked full time while in school in a variety of animal related jobs including grooming, pet sitting, and work in an emergency animal hospital. She also volunteered at a wildlife organization caring for neonate wildlife and enriching captive chimpanzees. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she wanted to pursue a career making a difference for animals.  In 2006, Karen made San Diego her permanent home and began working for the San Diego Humane Society as a Mobile Adoptions Coordinator and then as their Foster Coordinator. She fostered dozens of kittens herself, many of which were medical cases. Her concern for animals with medical needs led her to a position with a canine rehabilitation facility assisting dogs with degenerative disease, injuries, and surgical recovery in the treatment pool. After 12 years of helping companion animals, Karen extended her passion to wildlife and worked in wildlife rehabilitation as the Operations Coordinator for the San Diego Wildlife Center where she handled animals from hawks to squirrels and raised neonate cottontail rabbits under special permits.

Karen has had animals all her life.  She enjoys spending her free time walking her dog, spoiling her cats, and making pet beds for a nonprofit near and dear to her heart. She knows first-hand how upsetting it can be to have a pet that is not well and is excited to help make a difference for animals and people through her work with FACE.