Our Board of Directors

Lisa Barnes, Board President

Lisa has dedicated her life to helping others find their forever home. From a young child, she has been a pet parent to numerous wonderful rescued cats and dogs. Professionally, she is a partner at Fragomen, the world’s largest immigration firm, where she has dedicated her career to helping companies hire and transfer their critical talent where needed around the world, and their employees and families find their forever home in the country of their dreams. She has also dedicated the past 15+ years to promoting and protecting the rule of law and a just society through the American Bar Association’s International Law Section, an organization of 14,000+ members in more than 100 countries, which she ultimately chaired. Originally from New York, Lisa and her husband Ian have made Sonoma County their home since 2015, with their two rescue dogs, Gumbo and Nero. Lisa joined the HSSC Board in 2024 to help transform the lives of some of our most vulnerable and those whose lives they will enrich.

Kelly Stromgren, Board Treasurer

Kelly was born and raised in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, eventually migrating west to the “City by the Bay”. She entered the world of Wall Street when she relocated to Santa Rosa in the late 80’s and is a Financial Advisor with Stifel, Nicolaus & Company. She lives with her husband Brent and their miracle cat Cabo, who is a cancer survivor. Kelly’s quest for a dog brought her to HSSC as a volunteer dog walker because Cabo was just not interested in sharing her home with a dog. Along with her passion for animals, she is an avid golfer and a self-proclaimed DIYer. In addition, she is a past member of the Active 20-30 Club of the Redwood Empire.

Neville Hormuz, Board Secretary

As lifelong Sonoma County resident, musician and animal rescue advocate, Neville has deep ties to this community. He owns Loud and Clear Music in Cotati, a musical instrument retail store that’s helped raise over $120,000 for local animal non-profits and schools over the past 14 years. He’s a licensed contractor and has a commercial Audio-Visual design/installation company called Loud and Clear Audio Visual. He plays guitar and sings in an 80’s Tribute Band called Choppin’ Broccoli. He’s passionate about animal rescue. He wants to help inject love into the world by helping animals and the people who love them.

Kati Aho, Board Member

Kati is the Director of Operations and Programs for the Earle Baum Center of the Blind. The EBC is a local community center and school for people with sight loss. Prior to the EBC, her focus was in the electronics industry. She was the COO at a small startup, and was with Hewlett Packard/Agilent Technologies for 24 years. Kati is a native Californian, born and raised in the Sebastopol area, and a graduate of USF with a BS in Informational Systems Management. Her passion focuses on organizational development and the creation of synergistic, self-managed work teams. Kati is an avid SCUBA diver, animal lover and loves to garden.

Sandy Chute, Board Member

Sandy has a background in interior design and taught home economics in Washington DC. She opened a clothing store in Maryland which she quickly grew to eight stores. After selling her business to a multinational corporation, she moved to California and began a new career of building, remodeling and furnishing homes for resale. Here, she also fulfilled her lifelong dream of owning a horse and was involved with the early days of the natural horse training movement and the concepts behind horse communication. Sandy has volunteered with a wide range of nonprofits for over 40 years, including 35 years as a site manager for the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Festival and as co-chair for the Sonoma County Medical Alliance Garden Tour. She has two horses, a tuxedo cat, and a Havanese named Harley who enjoys playdates with dog friends and training in therapy classes with Canine Companions for Independence.

Chris Kittredge, Board Member

Chris has been a professional photographer for the past 40 years specializing in unique and meaningful portraits of animals and their families. She has a BA from The University of Michigan. For the last 26 years she has been deeply involved, and continues to be involved, with Canine Companions For Independence, but several years ago she decided to devote additional time and her expertise to helping animals whose lives were less fortunate. Chris and her husband, Bob, live in Santa Rosa with their three Labrador retrievers, Adah, Taya, and Dory, and two fun loving rescue cats, Sully and Sawyer. She has been an HSSC Board Member since 2014.

Steve Maass, Board Member

Steve Maass is the Founder and President of Oliver’s Markets, which locally owns and operates four supermarkets in Sonoma County. Steve’s vision when he opened the first Oliver’s Market location in Cotati in 1988 was to create a store where customers truly enjoyed shopping. Oliver’s proprietary combination of offerings includes food and wellness products produced in Sonoma County, along with a wide assortment of natural and conventional groceries. Oliver’s purchases goods and services from over 600 Sonoma County businesses and sells over $45M per year in Sonoma County products. Steve began his retailing career in 1972 as the Founder of Maass Produce that operated roadside produce stands around the San Francisco Bay Area. Steve was also the Produce Manager at the Santa Rosa Food 4 Less before opening the first Oliver’s Market in Cotati in 1988. Steve has lived in Sonoma County for over 40 years. He is a former board member of Redwood Empire Food Bank, and currently serves on the boards of Humane Society of Sonoma County and Green Music Center. A lifelong animal lover, Steve has two horses (one rescue), two dogs (both rescues and one born deaf), one friendly feral rescue cat, five chickens and one rescue rooster.

Robert Quail, Board Member

Bob is a shareholder with the law firm of Clement, Fitzpatrick & Kenworthy in Santa Rosa, with a practice focused on business and real estate transactions. Bob previously served as Vice President/General Counsel for a large winery based in Sonoma County and has lived here since 1994, where he and his wife, Julie, raised two daughters around too many cats, dogs and horses to count. Bob also serves as an advisor to the board of KRCB Public Media, the PBS and NPR affiliate in the North Bay, and is a former member of the Oak Grove Union School District Board of Trustees and the Boards of Children & Family Circle of Sonoma County and the Lattice Education Foundation. Bob has been an HSSC Board Member since 2009.

Mark Rubins, Board Member

Coming soon!

Ana Suarez, Board Member

Ana, along with her husband John and dog companion Lilie, splits her time between Graton and San Francisco but she is a country gal at heart. She was born and raised in a small coastal town in Puerto Rico surrounded by sugarcane fields and palm trees. She arrived in the “mainland” 40 years ago to pursue higher education. She obtained a Masters in Public Health and worked over 10 years as a survey and public policy researcher for various entities and non-profit organizations. She decided to retire early in order to care for her elderly parents, a role she cherished despite its many challenges. She has volunteered with the American Red Cross (ARC), Sonoma/Napa Chapter, since the 2017 Tubbs Fire and after being inspired by the work the ARC did in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria just a month prior. In her current role as Red Cross Disaster Client Services volunteer caseworker, she provides guidance and support to individuals and families, many with companion animals, during their recovery after being displaced from their home because of an emergency, from a single family house fire to a large scale disaster such as wildfires or floods. Her work with the Red Cross, and as a caretaker herself to a rescued dog, has given Ana a greater understanding and appreciation of the importance of making sure our companion animals have a safe and caring home, and that their humans have the resources and information they need to be able to provide one. As a HSSC Board member, her goal is to help the organization continue to successfully serve companion animals and their humans in our community, specially during their time of greatest need.

Kristen Trisko, Board Member

Kristen and her husband David own HeadgearPlus Promotional Marketing in Petaluma where she handles human resources, payroll and credit card reconciliation. She has a BS in Agricultural Economics from UC Davis, where she attended because of her love of animals. Animal Science was her first major but required visits to the slaughter house which resulted in a change of major as well as a dietary change. Kristen volunteered with Canine Companions for Independence in the East Bay for 33 years – she helped raised a dozen puppies, started up and led a local chapter of volunteers and was responsible for annual fundraisers and community outreach events. When Kristen moved to Sonoma County five years ago, she decided to look for other ways to give back to her community where her love for animals and volunteer experience would be useful. Although a relative newcomer to Sonoma County, Kristen has fallen in love with the beauty and culture that make this area unique. Kristen and Dave have three grown children and live in Sebastopol with their dog Lilac, a rescued feral cat Shadow and a horse named Coco.