Our Experience. Your Success.
We are a dedicated collective of animal welfare professionals committed to elevating global shelter standards through strategic consulting and operational excellence.
Founder, Lead Consultant & Board Member
Theresa Ockaskis
Theresa Ockaskis is a globally focused advocate whose compassion knows no borders. With an MBA in Leadership and Managing Organizational Change from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School and more than 33 years of experience in business development, she brings both strategic expertise and heartfelt dedication to her work in animal welfare and humanitarian efforts.
A lifelong animal lover, Theresa is a devoted cat and dog parent and has fostered animals with complex medical needs across multiple rescue organizations. Her hands-on commitment extends beyond the home, serving on the advisory boards of Flight Angels of Roatan in Honduras, Paws of Hope Rescue in Turkey and Michele’s Rescue in Michigan.
Theresa has also been a powerful voice for animal advocacy, appearing in more than 60 television segments to promote adoptable animals and share inspiring rescue stories. Her leadership in international rescue efforts includes her work with the Hope for Honduras initiative, established to aid animals left behind when a rescue organization discontinued its mission. Theresa made multiple trips to Honduras to help assess the situation and assist in the rescue of 39 dogs and several dozen cats.
Her global volunteer experience is extensive and deeply impactful. Theresa traveled to Laos to help build an elementary school, provided child enrichment care at orphanages in Sri Lanka and Morocco, assisted medical teams in rural Guatemala and developed strategies to improve rescue operations with organizations in Honduras and Turkey. She has also worked hands-on caring for lion cubs in South Africa.
Through ShelterAid International, Theresa blends her professional expertise with global volunteer work to drive meaningful change, partnering with shelters that advocate for vulnerable animals in underserved communities around the world.
Consultant & Board Member
Michele Schaut
Meet Michele Schaut, an animal advocate that has dedicated her life to giving cats and dogs a second chance at life. Since founding Michele’s Rescue in 1997, she has given hundreds of volunteers the opportunity to come together serving the animal rescue mission. As a result of these efforts, Michele’s Rescue has given over 10,000 animals a second chance at life. One of Michele’s more interesting animal rescues includes a giant pig that she somehow fit in the back of her sedan that found a home at a hobby farm.
Michele’s efforts extend beyond her home base in Grand Rapids, MI. She regularly pulls animals that are on the Euthanasia list from shelters across the US – providing critical medical care and rehabilitation needed before finding their forever home. Her compassion and heroic efforts also crosses international borders – she spearheaded the Hope for Honduras initiative, helping rescue 39 dogs and dozens of cats. Additionally she has rescued from Mexico and Canada.
Michele’s Rescue provides all-encompassing animal care to get the animal ready for adoption including a dedicated team of veterinarians, surgeons, dog trainers and foster families. Michele’s Rescue also has a lifelong commitment to all its' rescues with the option to be surrendered back to the rescue if not a fit post-adoption.
Michele also supports local community enrichment with puppy and kitten events - knowing that snuggles from a furry friend can provide much needed therapy to schools, businesses and senior care homes. Additionally, the rescue provides food, supplies and equipment to other non-profit rescues.
Michele’s vision encompasses more than the Michele’s Rescue organization - she also founded the West Michigan Spay Neuter clinic (which evolved into CSnip). Michele also created Pet-a-Pawlooza, an organization bringing animal efforts together, which has evolved into the non-profit foundation for ShelterAid International.
At home, Michele is also a pet parent to 8 cats and 2 dogs whose lives have been extraordinarily saved from a life of disease and health complications.
Consultant & Board Member
Angie Carlisle
Angie’s journey in animal rescue began at just six years old, when she brought home her first cat. Decades later, that childhood calling became a mission.
While living in Roatán, Honduras, Angie quickly found herself rescuing kittens with nowhere else to go. With limited veterinary care, few local adopters, and virtually no resources for homeless animals, she realized that saving them meant creating a solution herself.
In 2022, Angie founded Flight Angels of Roatán, starting with just six cats. She built the organization from the ground up — developing relationships with veterinarians, navigating international import and airline regulations, creating a network of flight angels, and building partnerships with rescues across the U.S. and Canada. She even funded the rescue from her own retirement savings while establishing a sustainable donor network.
Her determination turned six cats into a rescue that has now helped more than 550 cats, with approximately 460 transported to the U.S. and Canada for adoption and new lives.
Angie understands firsthand what it means to rescue animals when resources are limited — and what it takes to keep going when the need seems endless. She knows that rescue requires creativity, persistence, strong partnerships, and an unwavering belief that every animal deserves a chance.
Now living in Key West, Florida, Angie is bringing that experience and drive to her next chapter: Flight Angels of Key West.
Her mission is simple: find a way. When there seems to be no way, Angie creates one.
Consultant & Advisory Board Member
Chloé Saimpert
Chloé Saimpert is French currently residing in Budapest, Hungary. She is an international nonprofit leader with more than two decades of experience helping organizations clarify their vision, navigate complexity, and build the people, structures, and systems needed to turn ambition into action. She has held increasingly senior positions within the United Nations and worked across more than ten countries in both stable and emergency contexts, with a focus on strategy, organizational development, leadership, crisis response, and change.
Alongside her professional career, Chloé has spent nearly two decades involved in animal rescue, as a foster, advocate, and more recently as a leader helping build and manage a grassroots rescue organization in Turkey. Her hands-on experience spans shelter development, volunteer management, finances, adoptions, international animal transport, and complex medical cases.
These experiences have shaped her belief that grassroots rescue organizations do not lack passion or ambition—they often lack access to the structures, systems, and organizational support needed to turn that passion into sustainable impact. Chloé is passionate about strengthening rescue organizations without losing sight of what drives the work: the animals.
At ShelterAid International, she focuses on co-creating practical tools and diagnostic approaches with shelters and grassroots organizations, grounded in their realities and adaptable across contexts. She combines a systems-oriented perspective with a deep understanding of the emotional realities of rescue, bringing structure and clarity while keeping the lives, people, and passion at the heart of the work.
Consultant & Advisory Board Member
Mia Rake
Mia is an American animal rescuer based in Istanbul, Türkiye, with 7 years of experience in animal welfare and rescue. Her work has included fostering, shelter volunteering, rescuing abandoned and abused animals, coordinating veterinary care, supporting adoption placements, and international outreach.
Alongside her hands-on rescue experience, Mia has a professional background in project management and marketing, with experience in operations, communications, organization, and strategy.
As an Advisory Board member, Mia brings these two worlds together to support animal rescues internationally. She is passionate about helping smaller and struggling organizations strengthen their operations, improve their visibility, and develop sustainable systems that allow them to focus on what matters most: saving animals.