Dana Andresen, Executive Director, Feline Rescue

Dana Andresen started as the first executive director of Feline Rescue, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based, no-kill companion cat rescue organization, in April 2016. Dana came to her current role after working with a pet food company and then as the first executive director of the Minnesota spay/neuter assistance program (MN SNAP). She got interested in animal welfare after running a fundraiser with the pet food company she worked for after Hurricane Katrina. Feline Rescue has three programs: shelter, foster, and outreach. The first two programs are adoption programs, while their outreach program is more geared to pet retention. That program includes subsidized spay/neuter, pet food, and strives to educate people and connect them to the resources they need to care for their cats. In Dana's nearly three years as executive director, she has worked with the board of directors and many volunteers on a strategic plan to help determine the organization's course for the future. One of the top priorities in that strategic plan was bringing vet care onsite to decrease costs and decrease stress on cats, and Feline Rescue is making great strides toward that goal. They now have a vet director on staff, as well as a CVT and a vet assistant, and they will begin doing dentals and basic surgeries soon. Stacy & Dana go on to discuss the future goals Feline Rescue hopes to work on, as well as the organization's governance structure—including the challenges of moving the organization's board from an operational one to a governing one. They also touch upon the kinds of cats that Feline Rescue takes in ("the cats no-one else will take"), and they talk about Dana's plan to focus more of her time in the coming year on fundraising and development. To learn more, visit Feline Rescue's website, or you can email Dana at [email protected].