Leadership

Sue Berry, CAWA, Chief Executive Officer

Sue began her career in Animal Welfare as a volunteer for the New Hampshire SPCA in 2001. She joined the staff there in 2004 as Director of Administration and served for over a decade working to support the welfare of animals in New Hampshire and beyond. She was a leader of the organization’s Disaster Response Team and served on the Board for the New Hampshire Federation of Humane Organizations. Sue enjoyed working directly with pets of all shapes and sizes from birds to horses during her tenure.

Most recently, Sue served as Director of Operations for Woods Humane Society in San Luis Obispo, CA where she oversaw all aspects of animal care, intake, adoptions, behavior and training and facilities maintenance at two locations. While there, she was able to implement innovative adoption and intake processes, more than tripling their adoption numbers and increasing their lifesaving work.

Sue is a graduate of Daniel Webster College with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Management and Information Technology.  She became a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) through the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement in 2020. Sue joined the Peggy Adams team in the summer of 2022 and relocated to Palm Beach County with her husband, three adopted dogs, Dudley, Jellybean, and Tansy, an adopted cat named Gemma,  three adopted parrots, Vito, BeeBee, and Jingle, and a recently adopted Mustang horse, Catori.

Dr. Alyssa Comroe, Director of Veterinary Medicine

Dr. Alyssa Comroe was raised in New Jersey and graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and English Literature. In 2010, she began her career in animal welfare working at Miami-Dade Animal Services in Miami, Florida as a veterinary technician while pursuing her Master of Public Health degree. She then attended the University of Florida where she obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree and completed her Master of Public Health degree. While at the University of Florida, she also earned the Maddie’s Certificate in Shelter Medicine which is a formal training program that allowed Dr. Comroe to learn specialized knowledge and skills to be a shelter veterinarian.

After graduation, Dr. Comroe began working as a shelter veterinarian at Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services in Jacksonville, Florida. While there, she was able to implement lifesaving programs to increase the standard of care for the pets of Jacksonville and to increase the shelter’s lifesaving capacity. She then took a position at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Manhattan, Kansas as faculty in shelter medicine where she had the opportunity to teach veterinary students shelter medicine and prepare them to be the next generation of shelter veterinarians. While there, she also consulted with various shelters in the Midwest, spoke at conferences, and performed research. Most recently, Dr. Comroe was a shelter veterinarian at Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center where she helped grow the pet retention program and improved the standard of care in the medical department.

Kati Erickson, CAP, Director of Development and Marketing

Kati joined Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in August of 2021 and leads the Development and Marketing departments. She is Vice President on the Board of Directors for the Planned Giving Council of Palm Beach County and served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

As a fundraising professional for over 20 years, Kati has worked with individual donors, corporations, private foundations, and public officials to raise millions of dollars for nonprofits and facilitated hundreds of grants and scholarships. She has a solid foundation of success in growing fundraising programs and serving as an organizational leader. Her areas of focus include annual fundraising, planned giving, endowments, family foundations, and donor stewardship. Prior to joining Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League, Kati has served in senior management positions at the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Norton Museum of Art, Armory Art Center, and the Daily Mail Group.

Kati graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and has earned the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation from The American College. She’s also a long-time volunteer with the Girl Scouts. Kati lives in Wellington with her husband, two children, a dog, cat, and hamster- Lilo, Louie, and Luna.

Jane Tomsich, CAWA, Director of Operations

Jane is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in Retailing & Consumer Sciences and a double minor in Business Administration and Animal Science. She started her career in Animal Welfare in 2010 at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson, working part-time as an Adoptions Counselor while attending school. Most recently, Jane worked at the Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix as the Director of Pet Placement. In that role, she oversaw all Adoption, Retail, Rescue, Transport, Community Cat, Working Cat, and Reception departments and programs. While at AHS, she instituted programs that reduced length-of-stay on the adoption floor, developed and implemented a transport program, and innovated new and effective rescue, placement, and adoption practices to help get more pets to positive outcomes faster than ever before.

Jane is a Fear-Free Certified Professional and in 2020 earned her Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) certification from the Association of Animal Welfare Advancement. She has been featured in Animal Welfare publications promoting creative ways to get pets adopted, and is an active participant in multiple animal welfare advisory boards. She continues to grow her knowledge and passion for animal welfare and is thrilled to be working to improve the lives of pets and people in the South Florida community.

Jane resides in West Palm Beach with her husband, dog and cat, and when not at work can be found spending time at the barn with her adopted BLM Mustang.

Jaclyn Berger, Director of Human Resources

Jaclyn was raised in Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Human Resources Management. In 2007, she began her career in benefits administration with Employee Benefit Professionals, LLC in Oklahoma City, the agency with which she completed two college internships. In her role as an Account Manager, she specialized in group medical, dental, vision, life, and supplemental lines of coverage; and served as a key liaison between human resources client contacts and insurance companies to negotiate cost saving benefits packages, lead workforce benefits education and open enrollment presentations; and she had the opportunity to spearhead the agency’s first Customer Relationship Management database implementation. In 2009, she joined Delta Dental of Oklahoma as a Broker Representative, where she grew her expertise in benefits administration, contract negotiations, and marketing strategies. 

After relocating to South Florida in 2012, she was introduced to Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League as a volunteer before officially joining the Administration Team in November of 2012. Jaclyn began leadership of the Human Resources and Volunteer departments in January of 2019. She is an advocate of utilizing creative initiatives to cultivate ongoing employee and volunteer engagement.

Jaclyn resides in Boynton Beach with her husband and two daughters and spends much of her time outside of work boating, fishing, and cheering on her beloved Oklahoma Sooners football team.

Yenny Ortegon, Director of Finance

Yenny was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She graduated in 1998 as a Certified Public Accountant from the Santo Tomas de Aquino University in Bogota and has more than 20 years of experience in the accounting field. Before migrating to the USA in 2021, Yenny worked as Regional Accountant in Aviatur S.A., a travel agency and as Payroll Specialist in Oracle Colombia Ltda.

After becoming a Floridian, she worked at Florida Design, Inc., the publisher of Florida Design, the magazine dedicated to fine interior design, architecture, and luxurious lifestyles. In Florida Design, Inc, she grew from a temporary position in the accounting department and became the Accounting Department Manager.

Yenny joined Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in February of 2020 as a Staff Accountant A/P and currently is the Finance Director.  Yenny lives in West Palm Beach with her family and her dog, Bella.