Our Leadership Team
Sydney Mollentine, AAWA – Chief Executive Officer
Kansas City native, Sydney was born and raised in the city in which she serves. From a very young age Sydney dreamed of becoming an animal welfare expert and helping the needy animals in her community. At the age of 13, she started volunteering at a local animal shelter and quickly learned that her passion for enhancing the human-animal bond was so strong that she wanted to make it her career.
Throughout her tenure, Sydney has had the pleasure of working alongside the best in the industry – developing best practices and procedures to help the people and pets within the greater Kansas City area – and continues to work on solving the pet homeless issues and providing necessary resources for underserved communities.
Some of her greatest accomplishments include working as a First Responder for the ASPCA assisting in one of the largest dog-fighting busts’ where over 300 dogs were seized and required intense medical and behavioral care, creating a Parvo ward at a local shelter and developing a treatment protocol with 100% survival rate, as well as achieving a No-Kill status for a city where the survival rate was under 10% prior to her (and the organizations) bid for services.
As CEO, Sydney plans to develop programs that provide education to our community on pet ownership, become a true ally for our city through outreach and enhanced accessibility to resources, as well as reduce barriers to adoption, lost pet reunification and medical services.
In her limited downtime, Sydney enjoys time with her family (husband and two beautiful children) and her three dogs and cat. She also enjoys being outside and anything that has to do with crafting!
Annie Runnion – Director of Clinic Operations
Annie has been working in the animal welfare industry for 10+ years. She has two Chihuahuas and enjoys living Downtown Kansas City, MO. She loves working at HSGKC because of the atmosphere of community that everyone brings each day. It can be a hard industry to work in, but the kindness, sense of humor and resilience makes coming to work every day exciting!
Daniella Barragán- Director of Shelter Operations
Daniella joined the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City in 2019. Prior to working at HSGKC, she worked in the social services field with victims of domestic violence. As 1st generation Indigenous Mexican-American, Daniella is passionate about serving and advocating for marginalized and underserved communities. She is incredibly passionate about increasing access to pet adoptions, pet care education, and veterinary care for those within the Latinx community in their native language. As Director of Shelter Operations, Daniella has helped increase adoptions by over 52% and helped HSGKC achieve No-Kill status with a 92% save rate.
She is from Las Vegas. NV. Her hobbies included going to concerts, reading, and traveling. Daniella lives in downtown Kansas City with her wife, two dogs, four cats, and a potbelly pig named Maggie.
Shelbi Ashcroft – Director of Development
Shelbi joined the Humane Society after 6 years of experience in nonprofit administration and earning an MPA. She is from Kansas City and is passionate about serving her community. Shelbi’s hobbies include bodybuilding, hiking, and going to concerts. She adopted her dog, Brandy, from HSGKC just a week after joining the team. Brandy’s hobbies include stealing socks and making new friends.
As DoD Shelbi plans to create engaging new fundraisers as well as bring back the old favorites. She believes the power of the community is our best asset and wants to create ways for everyone to support HSGKC.
Our Admin Team
Margaret McGrath – Scheduler
Margaret began working at the Humane Society in 2018, after spending many years in a full-service clinic, where she was the practice manager, surgery technician, receptionist, and lead technician. She has always believed in the mission of the Humane Society and is very proud of the work we do daily. She has one dog, his name is Anubis, an HSGKC alumni.
Haskell Villeda – Bilingual Customer Service Rep.
Haskell has been with HSGKC for 2 years. She enjoys working here very much as it combines her two greatest passions, translating and animals. She is best known for her humor and upbeat energy.
Marcy Canham – Shelter Manager
Marcy has been working with HSGKC since May of 2022. and has worked in animal welfare since 2017. She has two Bernese Mountain Dogs, and two kittens. In her free time, she loves to go hiking, backpacking and snowboarding. She hopes to someday through-hike the Appalachian Trail!
Lindsay Loy – Animal Services Liaison
Lindsay has worked in the animal industry for over 20 years. She loves working with the animals and the owners. She loves the impact she has on the community working at HSGKC. She has lots of pets of her own and a wonderful Husband and 2 step kids.
Helen Traphagan – Foster & Volunteer Coordinator
Helen recently retired after 30 years of teaching music in Springfield and North Kansas City. She loves reading, photography, concerts, and cross-stitching. More than anything, she loves to be home with her husband, four cats, and two dogs!
Megan Ernzen – Events & Development Coordinator
Megan has been working in animal welfare for 2 years and started with HSGKC in 2023. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 2021 from the University of Kansas. She has a strong passion for animals and in her free time she enjoys spending time with the 4 dogs of her own. (Mila, Champ, Ace, and Meeko)
Our Veterinary Team
Dr. Amanda Isle – Medical Officer
Dr. Isele has been at the Humane Society since June 2018 and has been the Medical Director since 2020. She lives on 7 acres with her husband, daughter, and twin sons. She has a one-eyed Pitbull, 5 cats, 4 goats, and 2 donkeys.
Dr. Rhiannon Koehler – Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Koehler is a part-time veterinarian at our shelter, primarily doing surgeries. She has worked as a shelter veterinarian since 2019. When not doing clinical vet things, Dr. Koehler runs her own freelance medical writing business, working on educational articles about veterinary topics and assisting with grants. Dr. Koehler lives in the KC area with her wife, dog (Anna), and four cats (Charlie, Gryffin, Xena, Hawk).
Dr. Madison Minter – Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Minter graduated from the University of Missouri in 2019. Her goal is to provide veterinary assistance to lower income families and underprivileged areas of Kansas City. Her husband is also a veterinarian and together they own one regal cat and three dogs, all of whom share human names (Richard, Ralph, Howard, and Henry).
Alicia Alonso – Bilingual Vet Tech
Alicia graduated early from Kansas State University with a Bachelors in Animal Sciences. She has been with the Humane Society for over a year and absolutely loves the knowledge and she has gained since she started. She chose to work at HSGKC because our overall goal is to help the community by offering proper and affordable vet care, which is very important to her
Ivan Bueso – Bilingual Vet Tech
Ivan graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science/Pre-Veterinary Medicine. He has 3 cats (Willie, Loki, & Penny) and 1 dog (Argo). His favorite part about working at HSGKC is the diversity & inclusion in the workplace & educating people in the community about the rewards of veterinary medicine in companion animals.
Hannah Rinehart – Vet Tech
Hannah joined the team in late 2022. She holds an Associates of Applied Science in Veterinary Technology degree and has been working as a veterinary technician since 2014. I have always loved animals and really enjoy being able to work with them and help them every day. Outside work I enjoy reading, being outdoors, spending time with my family, and most importantly cuddling my animals.
Alyssa Campbell – Vet Tech
Rachel Christensen – Vet Tech
Rachel received her bachelor’s degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in animal science with a pre-veterinary focus and her master’s degree in global health from the University of California, San Francisco. When she’s not working, she loves going on walks with her two rescue dogs or taking them to visit her horse stable nearby. Her two rescue cats enjoy watching TV with her or curling up for a good nap.
Victoria Jimenez – Vet Tech
Victoria has been working at HSGKC since 2022. She has been working at a veterinary technician for 4 years and dreams to be a veterinarian at a zoo. She is a mother of 6 kids and loves to spend time with them and her husband. She has 2 dogs names Mya and Fiona. She is thankful every day that she can save lives and enjoy her days at the shelter.
Our Animal Care Team
Ebany Hernandez – Bilingual Animal Care Staff
Ebany has always dreamed about working with animals. She loves taking care of both cats and dogs in the shelter and would like to go to school to earn a degree in animal sciences and animal behavior.
Karla Gutierrez – Bilingual Animal Care Staff
Karla has worked with HSGKC since #. In her free time, she enjoys reading and taking her two dogs, Kissy and Ranger to the park. What she loves about working at the Humane Society is spending time with all the animals and helping them find loving homes.