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Our Team

Meet our senior leadership staff

Our staff is full of dedicated, caring people who go above and beyond every single day to help the pets and people in our community. We are thrilled to introduce you to our Senior Leadership team!

 

The Humane Society of Southern Arizona values and champions diversity and inclusion. These values are part of who we are.

Together, we will continue to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices of our HSSA team  and the communities we serve. 

Beth Morrison, Interim CEO - 2023

Beth has over 40 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including 25 years as a CEO. Beth has led organizations, large and small, and is recognized as an accomplished turnaround specialist, with vast experience in operational and functional restructuring. In short, Beth has been in the thick of it – merger successes, clean-up from merger failure, rightsizing, leading through difficult culture shift, hands-on leadership during the pandemic, and building new buildings and new teams.

​Now serving as a nonprofit consultant and coach, Beth’s purpose is to enhance the value of the organization she is assisting, working to support struggling or growing organizations to strengthen and better serve their mission. Beth enjoys all the cuddles she receives from her HSSA adopted cat, Curi.

Jose Ocano, Interim Chief Programs Officer - 2023

Jose Ocano has spent more than 18 years working to preserve and promote the human-animal bond. Self-awareness, personal accountability, and relationship cultivation have been foundational as Jose navigates his career and life outside of work. At his first job with one of the largest animal shelters in Arizona, Jose learned the importance of developing emotional intelligence, communication, and people skills to build meaningful relationships that inspire and motivate people to work better together. In 2017, after a decade of working to transform that organization, Jose joined Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit organization where he served as the first Senior Director of People and Culture.

At Best Friends, Jose was responsible for leading dynamic teams, including Human Resources, Learning and Staff Development, Employee Experience, and Organizational Culture initiatives, and served as a strategic advisor to the Chief Executive Officer and Senior Leadership Team. Through collaboration, thoughtful change management, and innovation, Jose and his team stewarded a workplace culture that was employee- and value-centric. These efforts positioned Best Friends to win multiple Top Workplace Awards since 2020.

In 2023, Jose launched Hatching, a purpose-driven company aimed at fostering a more compassionate world by helping people and organizations develop the skills and mindsets to #LiveBetter and #WorkBetter.

José currently lives between Tucson and Los Angeles with his husband and two dogs, Zoe and Nugget.

Karen Hollish, Chief Development Officer - 2024

Karen has spent over 15 years telling and celebrating the stories of animals and people who love them.  

A former daily newspaper reporter who covered every animal story that came her way, Karen began her philanthropy career in Tucson in 2012, when HSSA hired her as development coordinator. In 2014, she was recruited by Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) to build its fundraising and communications program as its first director of Development and Marketing. During her tenure as a core member of PACC’s leadership team, PACC went from having animals in a tented facility and a reputation as a “pound,” to becoming a nationally recognized lifesaving leader. Most recently, Karen served as Director of Development at the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, where she focused on fundraising for faculty and students who are working to conserve wildlife and the wild lands they call home. She holds a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health and Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Arizona; and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Ohio University.

She lives in midtown Tucson with her pup Max, a PACC alum, her pup Stanley, an HSSA alum, and a rescued desert tortoise named Rhonda. 

Inge Koopman-Leyva, Director of Education and Outreach - 2003

In 2003, Inge Koopman-Leyva moved from Brooklyn, New York to Tucson, Arizona, and started her official career in animal welfare as the Children’s Programs Specialist at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. Inge received her BS degree from Hunter College in Anthropology while working as a veterinary assistant, professional dog walker, and pet sitter in New York City before relocating.

In her field, Inge was able to create a space to incorporate those areas she was most passionate about, helping people within her community, empowering youth, caring for animals and the environment, and providing equitable programming and services for community members most underserved.

As a Humane Educator, she has worked in various levels of the field from the frontline staff to her current position as Director. Inge’s career has focused on working within diverse communities developmentally, ethnically and culturally to encourage and instill humane philosophies and care of animals and people.

Over the course of her career, Inge has worked with the Arizona Department of Corrections and Juvenile Courts, to bring humane education and therapeutic animal visitation into the Ajo Juvenile Detention Center. Additionally, she worked with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe to develop youth programs incorporating interactions with domesticated companion animals. She also established long-lasting professional relationships with a multitude of teachers and educators in Pima County through the HSSA’s school-based education programs reaching thousands of school-aged children a year. Inge has been an active member and past Board Member of the Animal Cruelty Taskforce of Southern Arizona and more recently she has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Humane Educators and as board president from 2021 – 2023.

To balance and ground herself, Inge loves traveling and investing time with her husband and two daughters. She can also be found snuggling one of her rescued pets, Valentino her tripod Staffordshire Terrier, Azul her German Shepherd or one of her four cats, Oliver, Fat Mama, Juan Carlos or Chilendrina.

Kelley Smith, Director of Finance

Kelley Smith has worked for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona since 2013 and was a volunteer before that. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Accounting and Economics. Animals have always been an important part of the family growing up, and all of her current animals have come from HSSA. She has two bunnies, Zero and Peanut Butter, and a Pit Bull, Mika, who’s afraid of them.