Katie Timber started fostering pets from the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) of Southwest Michigan at age 14, when she was herself in foster care. At 19, she joined the pet shelter’s staff as a kennel tech. Seven years later, she was named the organization’s executive director.
Today, at age 41, she lives in downtown Kalamazoo with her husband, two daughters, three cats and two dogs (guess where they came from?), and helms a robust nonprofit that rehomed 1,400 neutered and vaccinated pets last year and is on track to do so again in 2026.
How did you get where you are today?
I had a really nontraditional upbringing. I was in the foster care system locally, staying with several families and for an extended time at The Ark (Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo’s youth shelter). I got a job at Pet Supplies Plus, and the manager there took me in. She was young and a hippie and fostered animals. As a teenager, doing that with her gave me a lot of purpose. It felt really good to have that level of responsibility and that’s how I got involved with the SPCA.
I got to this position today by working with my community. The organization didn’t have the best start back in the day. There was a great board and group of volunteers, but it had a lot of debt, so they essentially gave me the position along with a vote to close in three months. We didn’t own the land we were on, owed $1.6 million on the building and didn’t have a veterinarian. Now, 15 years later, we’re 100% debt-free, offer a spay and neuter clinic and are really community-focused.
We have relied on people with a shared passion for animals to help us move forward. That includes my second-in-command, Tricia Mohney, our staff and volunteers and media partners who promote adoptions: WWMT and WKFR 103.3. We’ve worked with wonderful people in the community like Matt Callander, Tom Huff, Darren Malek and Jim Vandenberg. Local influencer Olivia Boblet does marketing for us as a volunteer. We have benefited by working with Cathy Bissell and the Bissell Pet Foundation; because of Bissell, our puppy Dan Campbell (named for the Detroit Lions coach) was in the Puppy Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday. He got two touchdowns, and I was lucky enough to be there in New York.
Today, we house about 140 animals at any given time and our foster program can take up to 40 animals. Every single animal in the shelter is tested for disease, fixed, vaccinated and microchipped by our four wonderful veterinarians Pete Vanvranken, Gary Ryder, Aarti Singh and Catie Case.
I try to stay on top of nonprofit stuff and vet med and what’s going on in the world of animal sheltering.
I was a fellow scholar at the Harvard Kennedy Business School’s education program, called Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation and learned a lot from that.
What’s happening at the shelter right now?
We just got five dogs from a Louisiana shelter that had to close. We do a lot of support for local and out-of-state shelters to help with overcrowding and disaster relief. When the tornadoes hit here in 2023, displaced residents of a trailer park were staying at a church with their pets. We went and vaccinated, spayed and neutered the animals and provided help if their owners needed to adopt them out.
Beyond adoptions, we work with pets in the community’s unhoused encampment and go out and vaccinate them. The human-animal relationship is sometimes all people have. We work with Loaves and Fishes and senior centers, where people have limited incomes, to help with pet food. We have a long-standing program with the YWCA’s domestic violence shelter. If a woman goes in and has a pet, we will keep it until they get out and give it back to them fully vetted. I’d never been approached publicly before until recently when I had a woman tell me, “You kept my huskies for a month while I could get my life together, thank you.”
What keeps you up at night?
Honestly, not being able to do as much as I would like. We’re getting more families calling and telling us, “It’s cheaper to euthanize my animal than it is to treat it.” They’re having to make tough choices and that’s really heartbreaking.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My pets, my yoga practice and my 5-year-old. I like to live. I like to be around my community. I like my job. I love my family. I’m just happy to be alive and get to do a job like this. It’s more of a lifestyle than a job; I’m always on call. But what a great feeling.
Tell me about your upcoming fundraiser.
Our Fur Ball is Sept. 18 outside at the Haymarket Alley and at The Desenberg. It’s business casual for 21 and up, and it’s really fun and different — it’s a walkabout with cocktails and activities. We’ve even got
Skee-Ball.
What are the SPCA’s pressing needs?
Money. Volunteers. We’re open every day of the year for volunteers from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. We have three acres of walking trails. You can pet cats. We’re always looking for foster homes. We do corporate days of service if you have a group that would like to come help.
I want to thank the community for all they give to us throughout the year. Those lemonade stands and $10 checks from grandma really keep us going. I want to continue to do more to make sure our Southwest Michigan pets are taken care of and people can retain their animal family members.
— Interview by Katie Houston and edited for length and clarity
