“Laura A. started on the medical team as a medical coordinator about a year ago and eventually became one of our vet approval admins.
She has quickly grown to one of the most dependable volunteers we have. She has managed some of our more complex medical cases as a medical coordinator and is great at making sure all of the little details are addressed.
She is always willing to lend a hand, whether it be jumping in to answer an email from a foster, or approving a last minute appointment for illness. She seems to be available at exactly the times that others aren’t, and that is incredibly helpful for our fosters and our vet partners.
She has also fostered with DPA. When she can’t foster full time, she has taken on temps and taken RAD dogs for weekend event exposure.
Rescue can be frustrating, especially when dealing with the medical side. Laura has a knack for taking everything as it comes and not letting it discourage her. I can’t thank her enough for her contributions this far. I am so glad to have her on the team and can’t wait to see what else we can accomplish as we grow.” -Jessica D., DPA’s Medical Director
Laura’s dedication as a volunteer does not go unnoticed and she is valued in our community. Read more about her below:
What is your current role?
I am a medical coordinator, vet appointment authorization admin, foster pharmacy, and RAD program volunteer. I have fostered dogs in the past, but recently have been helping out with temporary fostering and the RAD (rent-a-dog) program.
How did you get involved with volunteering at DPA?
I first heard about DPA from a neighbor in Lakewood. A dog was found wandering around near White Rock and was taken to DAS after nobody stepped forward as her owner after a few days. I had been thinking about trying out this fostering thing, and something about this pup pulled at my heart, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start fostering. One of our neighbors pointed me to DPA, and luckily DPA agreed to pull the pup from DAS and allowed me to foster her. She (Foxy Roxy) ended up having some medical issues, and the DPA medical team was so incredibly supportive. I jumped at the opportunity to get involved with them when they posted a need for more medical coordinators a few weeks later. 🙂
What are you most passionate about at DPA?
It’s hard to choose just one thing, but right this minute, I’d have to say I’m most passionate about the tough medical cases. Even though my current life situation probably wouldn’t allow me to personally foster an animal that needs a lot of medical attention in order to heal, I really enjoy helping out digitally on the administrative side with the medical team. It makes me so happy to see the transformations of the really medically needy foster dogs, cats, and other animals. DPA and it’s fosters do amazing work!
What are some words of wisdom to new DPA Volunteers?
Any volunteering effort, no matter how insignificant it might seem to you, can make a huge difference. Even if you can only give a couple hours of your time each month, whether that’s spent logging medical records, taking photos at an adoption event, doing inventory at the storage unit, your time is appreciated by the DPA team and—most importantly—helps DPA’s foster animals.
Give us a fun fact about you!
Ha, usually my answer to these types of questions have to do with volunteering with DPA, so I guess I’ll have to say that I recently got scuba certified. For now, I’m just enjoying the fun side of scuba diving, but one day I’d like to take some more advanced courses and get involved in search and rescue.
Be Pawsome like Laura. Apply to be a Dallas Pets Alive! volunteer today!
