Board & Staff
Leadership
Kelly O’Meara
Executive Director
Kelly O’Meara is the Executive Director of PASA. Prior to joining the organization, she worked with Humane Society International for over 22 years, most recently serving as a Vice President. There, she had oversight of all international companion animal related projects, including the dog meat and street dog campaigns. She led the strategic planning and program implementation with a team of over a 100 people located on three continents. And, for over fifteen years, she participated in the leadership of HSI’s global disaster response and operations. She has traveled extensively in Asia and Africa where she engaged with local partners and worked with governments to adopt humane standards and protocols for animals.
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Ms. O’Meara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resource studies and wildlife conservation from the University of Massachusetts. She has experience as a veterinary technician, holds certificates from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in Large Animal Euthanasia, and from Bristol University, England, for Animal Welfare Officer Training.
PASA Board of Directors
Michele Stumpe
Chair, Board of Directors
Michele Stumpe, Chair of the PASA Board of Directors, is an attorney and managing partner at Ardis Law. She began working with gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans in the 1980’s as a zoo volunteer in the nursery at the Gladys Porter Zoo. Early in her legal career, Stumpe set out to combine her professional talents with her passion for conservation and great apes. Since 1999, she has volunteered at various sanctuaries in Africa and the US. She has also served on advisory boards to the Dewar Wildlife Trust, the only gorilla sanctuary in the USA, and the Great Ape Project, International. In 2005, Stumpe became a member of the Dewar Wildlife Trust Board of Directors. As an entrepreneur who has created and run several successful companies, Stumpe is highly regarded in the legal and professional community for her integrity, insight and business sense. It was these qualities that led to her appointment in 2005 as the acting President of Great Ape Project, International – the umbrella organization for the Great Ape Project organizations throughout the world. In 2009, Stumpe and her husband started their own non-profit organization called Children of Conservation. This organization works closely with PASA sanctuaries and provides various benefits to the sanctuaries, including a scholarship program that gives educational funding for the children of the sanctuary workers.
Jeff Silver
Treasurer, Board of Directors
Jeff joined the PASA Board in July 2024. He has been a financial advisor and investor for over 40 years, has served on boards of non-profit organizations, and along the way received advanced degrees in Philosophy and Political Science. Jeff’s introduction to non-human primates dates to when he was a child growing up in New York City within walking distance of the Bronx Zoo, part of the Wildlife Conservation Society. In 1990, as a Patron of the Wildlife Conservation Society he trekked to visit mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Jeff’s philanthropic interests are motivated by his study of animal ethics including the moral consideration due to sentient creatures and accounts of animal rights. He is especially interested in the embedded existence of humans within the animal kingdom experienced by virtue of empathy, care, awe, and wonder, and how such accounts establish the intrinsic value of creatures and the moral consideration due to primates and other animals.
Rebecca Rose
Secretary, Board of Directors
Rebecca Rose is a 40-year veteran of the fields of wildlife conservation and environmental education. She serves as the Conservation Liaison for the Ohio Wildlife Center – the largest wildlife rescue center in central Ohio. She is a member of the Ohio Bat Working Group, the Environmental Professionals Network, and is an Ohio Certified Naturalist. She was trained by the Climate Reality Project to present on the topic of climate change. As the field conservation manager for the Columbus Zoo, she oversaw the Zoo’s conservation grants program which supports multiple projects across the globe. In addition to the PASA board, Rebecca serves on the board of Friends of Bonobos – a U.S.-based support organization for the world’s only sanctuary for endangered bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is a co- founder of the Zoos and Aquariums Committing to Conservation conference (ZACC) which brings together zoo professionals and field conservationists to strengthen zoo support for wildlife conservation around the world. Rebecca began working with wildlife rescue organizations in the late 1980s when she met the founders of ARCAS – a group of dedicated Guatemalans who were determined to address the illegal wildlife trade in their country by building a rescue center to rehabilitate confiscated wild animals. Knowing the important connection between wildlife law enforcement and high quality rescue centers, Rebecca is dedicated to supporting the efforts of sanctuaries around the globe to stop the cruel and destructive illegal trade in wild animals.
Sebastian Louis
Member, Board of Directors
Sebastian Louis studied business administration at the Technical University in Berlin, graduating with a master’s in business administration focused on marketing and finance. After 11 years at AON, Sebastian became 2003 a managing partner and shareholder in the consultancy firm RHL. Additionally, Sebastian is a partner and managing director of several associated companies. Sebastian had his first contact with primates in 1995 at Chimfunshi, Zambia, a sanctuary that his brother Stephan supported and which they visited together several times. Stephan eventually became chairman of the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust (CWOT). After Stephen died in 2011, Sebastian was elected as chair of CWOT and Chimfunshi Germany, the nonprofit organization counterpart based in Germany. Since 2018, Sebastian has also been a member of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (Ngamba).
Mary Brown
Member, Board of Directors
Mary Brown has been working in animal welfare and wildlife conservation for over fifteen years with numerous sanctuaries, AZA-accredited zoos, and conservation organizations. Her experience spans primate rescue and care, conservation education, ape behavioral research, and supporting protected area creation, forest management and species recovery programs. She holds a Master’s degree in Primate Biology, Behavior and Conservation and a certification in International Public and NGO Management, and serves as a member of the Primate Specialist Group for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission. Through her extensive experience leading welfare, research and conservation programs, she has honed deep skills in fostering and managing partnerships and multi-institutional collaborations. She now dedicates her career to using these skills to raise funding and visibility for and build the capacity of initiatives focused on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development across Africa. Before joining PASA’s board, Mary spent several years contributing to the organization as a volunteer in multiple capacities, including grant writing, project development, database management and donor engagement.
Torie Curr Smith
Member, Board of Directors
Torie Curr Smith is the Animal Care Manager at Limbe Wildlife Centre. She started her animal journey in Sydney Australia as a youth volunteer at Taronga Zoo for 8 years working with the animal care teams as well as in environmental education. She first made the move to Africa in 2012 where she volunteered at an exotic monkey rescue center in South Africa for a year. At the end of this year, she decided she wasn’t done with her African primate journey and moved to the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (LWT) for a further year working as a rehabilitation coordinator. She then briefly returned to Australia to study to be a veterinary nurse working predominantly with dogs and cats. In 2017 she decided to move back to Africa and took up the role of Animal Manager at the Vervet Monkey Foundation- A PASA center in South Africa specializing in vervet monkey rescue and rehabilitation. In 2019 she reached out to the LWT for a 6-month position to train the team on veterinary clinic management which later led to her becoming the Head of Wildlife Rehabilitation for the trust and running all the animal care programs. Now, she serves as the Animal Care Manager at Limbe Wildlife Centre where she works to rehabilitate great apes.
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Peggy Motsch
Member, Board of Directors
Peggy Motsch is a qualified professional with an MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Biometry. She has dedicated her career to working with primates, particularly great apes, and over the past 20 years she has gained extensive experience in primatology and conservation project management across Africa. She has led large teams in remote areas and specializes in strategy development, wildlife rehabilitation and release, and building strong partnerships with government agencies and private organisations. Her specialisms include habituation of primates, with experience in Madagascar and Morocco, where she was involved in the creation of a National Park in Moyen Atlas. She has also worked in medical research centre, developing conservation programmes for endangered species in Gabon and running an orphan program for the cercopithecidae and releasing them back to the wild. She then moved to Congo, where she worked on biomonitoring initiatives for gorillas and other large mammals for the Odzala Kokoua National Park. For the past decade, she has been working in PASA wildlife sanctuaries in Africa, beginning her career as Project Manager at the Limbe Wildlife Centre and now serving as the Executive Director at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust. She has a deep passion for great ape conservation and community development, actively engaging local communities through education and outreach programs aimed at conserving landscapes and biodiversity.