Gateway Pet Guardians Board of Directors

Gateway Pet Guardians is run by a group of dedicated St. Louis area professionals who meet once a month to forge the path of the organization and make things happen! Each board member is involved with fundraisers and committees that make our organization function.

Jamie Case – Executive Director
Over the past three years, Jamie has helped grow Gateway Pet Guardians significantly through board and volunteer development, fundraising, marketing and procedural management. She is the organization’s only paid employee.

Jamie previously served as the President of the Frenchtown Dog Park Association, she has assisted Women In Charge and the St. Louis Paralegal Association with public awareness and marketing, the Arthritis Foundation with strategic plans to grow exercise programming in the St. Louis area, and she was most recently invited to join the Advisory Council for the pre-veterinary program at Gateway Institute of Technology in St. Louis.

Julia Mittelstadt – President
Julia and 4 other women co-founded Gateway Pet Guardians in 2004 as a way to fund their ongoing dog and cat rescue efforts. She has held a variety of position on the board over the years and fosters dogs and cats for the group. She is very involved in fundraising for the organization, currently chairing the committee for the 2011 Soiree for Strays.

Julia has been a residential realtor for 23 years, specializing in selling historic homes in Saint Louis. She is also the Vice President of the Frenchtown Dog Park Association, which runs and maintains a dog park in Soulard.

Ashley Kleffer – Vice President, Public Relations
As the Media Relations Manager for Demand Management, Inc., a software company headquartered in St. Louis, Ashley has experience in traditional Public Relations as well as new media, and brings creativity and innovation to Gateway Pet Guardians with her advertising agency experience. Her role as Public Relations coordinator focuses on raising awareness in the St. Louis area about Gateway Pet Guardians and its mission. She maintains the Gateway Pet Guardians website and social media pages as well as generating content for public awareness campaigns.

Ashley has previously worked on awareness campaigns for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, and the Alzheimer’s Association of Mid-Missouri.

Andrea Holak – Secretary
Andrea’s professional experience includes grantwriting and community development. She currently works as a Community Development Specialist with the St. Louis County Department of Planning. Prior to that, she worked with St. Louis County as a Homeless Services Specialist, where she specialized in federal and state grantwriting. Andrea has written grants for Gateway and is working to build a strong and diverse grant team that can enhance the capital campaign for shelter development.

Andrea is currently on the Frenchtown Dog Park Association Board and the Friends of Kathy J. Weinman Domestic Violence Homeless Shelter Board. Through these organizations, Andrea has gained a greater understanding of nonprofit management, fundraising, and marketing.

Jen Dolce – Treasurer
Jen is the Controller at Metro East Industries, which is located in East St. Louis. She has seen first hand the hardships animals endure there, which led her to her involvement with Gateway Pet Guardians. Jen brings a background in accounting and experience at Metro East Industries to her position as Treasurer with Gateway Pet Guardians.

Lisa Boyer – Board Member
A Strategic Account Manager in the Global Enterprise Solutions organization at AT&T, Lisa has 20 years of professional sales and management experience to contribute to the mission and success of Gateway Pet Guardians as they reach their goal of building an animal shelter with a low cost spay/neuter clinic and education center in East St. Louis.

Lauren Anderson – Board Member
Lauren is an Account Coordinator with the Corporate Sales & Marketing department of the St. Louis Cardinals, where she has also worked as a Marketing Coordinator & Editorial Associate with the Cardinals Publications department in her five years with the company. Her previous experience includes Public Relations Assistant for the City of University City and organizing several fundraising and awareness campaigns for the United Way of Southeast Missouri.

Lauren has spent the past year and a half volunteering for Gateway Pet Guardians and has assisted in the planning and implementation of several of the organization’s big fundraisers including the golf tournament & trivia night. Lauren also serves as the Fundraising Coordinator for Gateway, and consults with and assists individuals who would like to plan fundraising events for Gateway.