Operations Manager Dori Villalon joined the team at Santa Barbara County Animal Services on Monday, March 28.
County Public Health created the position of operations manager for Animal Services several months ago, at the recommendation of the American Humane Association (AHA). After months of reviewing candidates, the department announced its choice March 24.
“It was a long search,” Deputy Director of Community Health Susan Klein-Rothschild told the Sun. “We really wanted to get a person who brought a great deal of expertise to the position.”
Klein-Rothschild said Villalon was “head and shoulders above the rest” of the candidates, thanks to her background and education in animal welfare. Villalon will oversee the shelter supervisors and staff, focusing on Animal Services’ day-to-day work in shelters and out in the field.
The operations manager will free up Animal Services Director Jan Glick to focus on the new shelter medical team as well as big-picture changes, such as executing the hundreds of changes recommended by the AHA in its 2015 assessment of Animal Services.
“For us it’s a real opportunity to have someone come in and focus on our shelter services,” Glick said. “We’re just really excited to have a new person helping us in this area, and I think it’s going to help us move forward.”
Glick said Villalon will focus on the AHA’s recommendations for Animal Services’ daily operations, such as animal enrichment programs and ways to ensure positive outcomes for animals adopted from shelters.
“We’re working diligently to implement the recommendations and make the changes to improve, so the director will now have time to do those high-level things,” Klein-Rothschild said. “We need to have a lot of things grow and change.”
In its assessment, the AHA made recommendations for Animal Services’ facilities, volunteer programs, daily operations, fieldwork, shelters, and community relationships. The operations manager will help Animal Services improve more efficiently in these areas.
“There are a lot of good things going on at animal services right now,” Klein-Rothschild said. “We just need to keep the momentum.”
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 7, 2016.