Meet our Trustee Team
Sandra Fraser
Chair of Trustees
Sandra has been instrumental in the charity's growth over the last decade.
Both professionally and as our Chair, Sandra is passionate about how dogs learn and how they can help people with their skills. She also works with the Association of Pet Dog Trainers as a Tutor and Assessor, ensuring that dog training techniques remain modern and effective and is currently contributing to a BSI working group for training standards. As a member of the Assistance Dogs UK Trustee Board, Sandra is also helping to shape the future of assistance dog training and standards for a wider group of stakeholders, from which all member organisations will benefit.
Margaret Russell
Secretary
Margaret is a retired teacher of Economics and Business with extensive experience of working in the field of Human Rights, on both local and national levels, serving as committee secretary, treasurer and finally chair. She adds that her involvement with Dog A.I.D. gives her the opportunity to thank the organisation for the time spent helping to train her first dog and now her second, 14-month old West Highland Terrier, Barney.
Maggie Furmanek
Treasurer
More details coming soon
Caroline Lewis
Assistant Treasurer
With a background in Agricultural Accounts and Estate Management, Caroline was Sandra's first Assistance Dog partnership and was welcomed to the Trustee Board as Treasurer shortly after. Since then, she has supported 3 successive Treasurers as the charity has grown, latterly as a CIO. She has taken an active role in developing the long-term partnership with Natural Instinct and given peer support to a number of clients. Caroline created the first Dog A.I.D. website and social media assets and is proud of her in-depth knowledge of the organisation's history. Passionate about the future growth of Dog A.I.D., Caroline is actively involved in the development of the charity and its staff team from a client perspective.
Amanda Devlin
PR and Social Media
Amanda is a national newspaper journalist with nine years' experience volunteering in the charity sector. During her time working in the media, Amanda has been inspired by tales of tragedy transforming into triumph when people are encouraged to make a difference. She hopes she can help improve the lives of people with disabilities by shouting from the rooftops about Dog A.I.D as she follows in the footsteps of her late dad, Jim, who was also a trustee.
Peta Brandwood
Training and Workshops Lead
WIth several years experience as a tutor, assessor and mentor - Peta has spent a lifetime in the company of dogs and works professionally with their owners in a number of roles. In addition to being our training 'lead', developing our regular client/trainer workshops, she is also a member of APDT (UK) and helps people to train their dogs using positive, kind and fair training techniques. Several years as a qualified trainer puts Peta in an ideal position as a trustee of Dog A.I.D. and she continues to take great pleasure in seeing our client and trainer teams progress together with our help and support.
Isobel Michael
Income Generation
Isobel is an experienced fundraiser and consultant, focusing on philanthropy, impact measurement and capacity building. She has worked with inspiring charities in the UK and Australia, helping smaller charities to raise the funds and capacity needed to grow their reach and impact. Isobel has also helped to manage grants programmes and is a grant assessor. She works for Southside Family Project, is a fellow and trustee of the Institute of Fundraising and a trustee of First Steps (Bath).
Pauline Thompson
Having spent the last 35 years as a qualified trainer, assessor and verifier and working for most of that time for a global blue chip company as Senior trainer and Support Analyst Pauline brings a wealth of training, course documentation, IT, business and training needs analysis experience to the team. Pauline has owned dogs all of her life and has taken part in most dog related activities, including showing, agility, obedience, sheep herding and of course as a Dog AID trainer. Pauline is the owner of a dog home boarding franchise which she began after moving back ‘home’ after 20 years living in the south east, and is currently being trained by her puppy Baxter.
Stephen Jordan
More details coming soon
Lillie Abbott
Access and Disability Rights
Lillie has a wealth of experience in challenging access issues, especially those involving Assistance Dogs. Given that many issues stem from a lack of understanding, she focusses primarily on education and awareness. She is also well placed to help our clients tackle more serious issues should this be needed. Lillie is thrilled to have joined our Board in 2018 and is looking forward to supporting all our Dog A.I.D. clients and trainers.
Meet our Staff Team
Charlie Evans
Charlie, our Finance Officer, looks after the bookkeeping and administers monthly reports from our clients and trainers. Outside of the office she enjoys spending time with her husband, 2 young children and of course her springer Spaniel, Cooper.
Email reports@dogaid.org.uk
Samantha Highet
Senior Administration Officer, Samantha joined the charity August 2017. She is your initial contact for enquiries and is responsible for matching potential clients to trainers. Sam also organises our Workshops. She lives north of Shrewsbury and has two dogs.
Email admin@dogaid.org.uk
Mike McDonald - Chief Executive
Mike leads the Staff Team and is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the charity. With extensive experience in the Third Sector on local, regional and national levels, Mike holds an MA in Leadership and is currently completing a PhD in Health Policy & Governance at Keele University. He is a Chartered Fellow at the Chartered Management Institute, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants alongside being a Member of the Institute of Fundraising. He lives in Whitchurch, Shropshire and is owned by a Border Terrier/Jack Russell cross called Rudy.
Email mike@dogaid.org.uk