March 2019 by Ellen Jefferson, DVM, Executive Director, Austin Pets Alive! and Kristen Auerbach, Executive Director, Pima Animal Care Center

Audience: Executive Leadership

Video Length: 56:44

Get Them on Your Team: Engaging and Leveraging Activists to Reach Your Goals

Two of no-kill's most prominent shelter leaders, Dr. Ellen Jefferson and Kristen Auerbach, come together to discuss the importance of engaging and working with local activists - even when you feel attacked - to achieve your community's no-kill goals. This session will teach you skills to help you view activists as partners and to inspire them to work with you, not against you. This presentation was recorded by Maddie's Fund® at the 2019 American Pets Alive! Conference.

About Kristen Auerbach

Kristen Auerbach is the Director of Pima Animal Care Center, Pima County's only open-admissions animal shelter which takes in 17,000 homeless, lost and abandoned pets annually and serves 15,000 animals through animal protection and outreach services. Under her direction, PACC is saving more than 90 percent of the cats and dogs who come to the shelter including orphaned puppies and kittens, pets recovering from illness and injuries, and animals who have been victims of cruelty or neglect. In 2017, she oversaw the opening of the newly-constructed state-of-the-art, animal services facility. Under her leadership, PACC partners with hundreds of rescue and community groups and engages thousands of volunteers and foster families to help achieve its mission.

Her efforts have been featured in numerous national publications and websites, such as Animal Sheltering magazine, the Huffington Post, BarkPost, the Dodo and Buzzfeed, and on TV networks, including CNN, Fox and ABC. Kristen formerly served as the Deputy Director at Austin Animal Center in Austin, Texas as well as the Assistant Director at the Fairfax County Animal Shelter in Fairfax, Virginia.


About Dr. Ellen Jefferson

Dr. Jefferson graduated veterinary school in 1997 and started her career in private practice. In 1999, in response to an 85% death rate at the city shelter, she started Emancipet, a low cost and free spay/neuter clinic in an effort to decrease the number of homeless animals. In 2008, still not satisfied with how fast the city of Austin was moving towards no-kill status, she stepped in as Executive Director of Austin Pets Alive! Since 2008, Austin Pets Alive! has been the driving force to bring the entire city of Austin to a greater than 90% save rate and the largest no-kill city in the US, and to redefine what no-kill means, as Austin's save rate now approaches 98%. Dr. Jefferson was unanimously chosen as the first recipient of the Avanzino Leadership award, named for the father of no-kill and given for her outstanding contribution to the no-kill movement.