Our Team
Susan Lapierre : Ambassadors for God’s Creatures Executive Director + Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Susan has one senior dog, Isabelle, who was found on the streets of Anderson, and Lucien, an adopted one year old pit bull from the Animal Protection League. She also has five indoor cats and five feline leukemia rescues, and three cats with chronic upper respiratory issues, who all reside in her climate controlled catio. To say that Susan has a heart for animals would be an understatement to her commitment for God’s creatures. In 2016, compelled to address the suffering of animals in the community she started volunteering and soon founded Ambassadors for God's Creatures without a second thought.
Susan is motivated by helping those in need without discrimination, animal or human. She believes that it is important to focus on the needs of pet owners and help them access the resources needed to keep their pets in their homes their entire lives. She has created an array of services under the Ambassadors umbrella.
Sherri Keck : Claims Processor + Ambassadors for God’s Creatures Chair/President
Sherri is married to a remarkable man, Mark. Together they enjoy hiking, bicycle rides, traveling, outdoor concerts, going to wine and breweries. Between the two of them, they have a total of 4 kids and 4 grandkids with another one coming in August. Sherri and Mark have 2 furry babies. Charlie, who is a 7 yr old lovable mix terrier and Miss Kitty, who is a 12 year old mitten kitten. They are BBFs!
In her spare time Sherri is learning the guitar and loves to do crafts. She chose to work with AFGC because she is amazed at the work that they do for the local and surrounding communities. She sees that the organization and all of its volunteers have a passion to help animals. Sherri is impressed by the group of people who faithfully help the AFGC mission. She is proud to be a part of an organization for real change.
Connie Harris : Board Secretary + volunteer
Connie has three grown children and four adopted children at home. She is blessed with six granddaughters, four great grandsons, one great granddaughter, and one great granddaughter on the way. She has three dogs, two inside cats, a gecko, and three outside cats. She loves living her life in kindness, knowing that she can make someone’s life a little better from the smiles on their faces and the kindness shown to them.
She has been a part of Ambassadors since the beginning in 2016. Connie loves to see the changes and growth of AFGC over the past couple of years. It is a joy for her to know that she is helping pet parents love their pets and keep them healthier by spaying and neutering them. She is overwhelmed by the blessing that has come from being a part of Ambassadors and all of the support that she has received by being a part of it.
Amy Gates : Finance Analyst at Anderson University + Ambassadors for God’s Creatures Bookkeeper
Amy has been married to Rod “Chief” Gates for 10 years. She has a family full of love including her son, Evan Baker. She has a spoiled beagle mix rescue named Lucy, a sweet cat rescue named Larry, and an ornery cat rescue named Lenny, who was adopted from an Ambassadors adoption event held at a local Tractor Supply.
Amy has a heart for her whole family, obviously including pets! One year Amy’s son bought their cat, Lenny, a bowtie for Halloween. Lenny likes it so much that he thinks he has to wear one all of the time. It has become a tradition to buy him a new bowtie for each holiday season.
Amy began as a volunteer for Ambassadors nearly two years ago and has stayed because she believes in the mission.
Ambassadors Lead
Sharon is semi retired and has two adult sons and one furry son named Max, who is spoiled like no other cat. Sharon has worked at Ambassadors for the past three years and knows all aspects of the daily operations and is an asset to our organization. Sharon is hard working, dedicated, compassionate and a true team player, always giving 110% to our mission.
Sharon loves that our team works hard to help every customer that comes through our doors, who is seeking help for their pet. She is a strong advocate for responsible pet ownership and her deepest desire is for every animal to have a loving home.
Sharon Ward: Ambassadors Lead
Foster & Adoption Coordinator
Ashley is married to Chris Barrett and the two have great love and compassion for animals. They currently have 4 dogs, 3 FeLV positive kitties and plenty more cats, too many to count! Ashley works a full time job outside of Ambassadors and has worked with us since the spring of 2024. Her primary job is to oversee our foster program and facilitate adoptions. She also supervises the registration of new pet food pantry customers and works as a veterinary assistant in our weekly vaccine clinic and has been a valuable resource to our customers as she has extensive animal care knowledge, with over 15 years in the field.
Ashley loves the services Ambassadors provides for the community so pet owners can keep their pets in their homes and out of the shelter system. Her passion is to help the animals in any way that she can and she enjoys working directly with pet owners, providing education and resources so their pets live happy, healthy lives. Something that tugs on her heart strings is the vast number of animals that are euthanized each year in the shelters across the nation, and this motivates her to continue helping as many animals as she can through our services.
Ashley Barrett
Ashley Mann
Spay/Neuter and Donations Coordinator
Ashley is married to Jamie and they have a 10-year old daugther. Ashley has a house full of her own cats and dogs, and regularly pulls dogs from high kill shelters, works with trainers and other rescues to find the perfect placements for these hard to adopt dogs. Ashley joined the Ambassadors team in September 2024, and since then she has been a great addition to our team. She is highly motivated, personable and resourceful, as she networks with rescues, shelters, other animal welfare partners, local businesses and corporate donors, to bring resources and donations into our organization, to further help pet owners and animals who are most in need.
Ashley loves working with Ambassadors and being able to provide practical solutions, services and resources to pet owners in need so their pets remain with them and out of the shelter system their entire lives. Ashley's true passion is helping animals find safe and loving homes, and she especially enjoys helping the hard to adopt dogs that get overlooked in the shelter or have behavioral issues, pulling them and getting them happy and healthy again.
Dawn
IT Specialist
Megan began as a volunteer shortly after Ambassador's opened. Megan supports social media, the website, data entry and various other digital needs.
Megan has always been an animal lover and has many cats, dogs, gerbils, chickens and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Megan is also a cat foster for the Animal Protection League in Anderson.
Megan Ewing
Board Chair
Tim currently has lived in Anderson for approximately 5 years. He has 4 grown children that all live on their own. Tim is the owner of Tim’s Training Academy and has been a professional dog trainer for over 20 years and has trained behavioral modifications with shelter dogs for over 15 years. He works with private clients, shelters and rescues to help resolve behaviors that could lead to dogs being surrendered into shelters as well as helping to improve the chances of dogs getting adopted or staying in a home they are already living in. Tim hopes to bring his training and educational skills to Ambassadors for God’s Creatures to provide awareness to the community that there are solutions to behavioral issues and that they are affordable. Tim joined Ambassadors for Gods Creatures because of their vision to help address the issues of pet overpopulation. There is not just a single solution to the problem, and it takes more than just a single organization to begin addressing the problem. I like that Ambassadors for Gods Creatures forms alliances and partnerships with many other organizations and believes it is a community wide problem and solution. Meeting the communities needs for their pets in a multitude of programs and assistance, Ambassadors for Gods Creatures can have real tangible impact on the problem. Tim is a driver for our Midwest-Northeast transport rescue initiative, transporting cats to our partner rescue in southern Maine, and has helped save the lives of many animals, who might have otherwise died in the local shelters.
Tim Hartsock
Jutta Vogelbacher has a passion for wanting to help improve the lives of our fellow beings. Jutta and her husband have 4 cats and 2 horses, recently losing their beloved Thoroughbred, Buck Easter weekend. It was one of the hardest days in Jutta’s life. He was her teacher and best friend beyond being part of her family. All of her animals have been adopted from certain situations and Jutta feels blessed to be able to become guardians, becoming part of her little family. She sees herself as a guardian and says it is her privilege to be with the animals and try to do the best for them every day. Jutta’s background is in anthropology and education. She currently teaches German at Ball State University and while she enjoys her job, her passion is animals and particularly in helping to improve their lives. She felt grateful to be asked to serve on the board of Ambassadors of God’s Creatures. Jutta says, “So many lives have been touched by this organization and many more will be because of their ambition to keep pets in their homes and out of the shelter system. It is tremendously important for families who love their pets to have access to affordable food and medical services for their furry family members.” Jutta hopes to be of assistance specifically in terms of recruiting more volunteers and in fostering a climate of collaboration as well as forming a better and deeper understanding of root causes of the issues in animal welfare.
Jutta Vogelbacher
Store Associate
Kathy is married to John Cates. She has two children, 3 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. Kathy loves her family, which also includes her beloved dog, Buddy and 5 cats. Kathy has been with Ambassadors for two years and when she is not at the front register serving our thrift shop customers, she can be found working our weekly vaccine clinic. What Kathy loves most about Ambassadors is the array of services we offer to the community and seeing so many people take advantage of them. She would love to see more people learn the importance of spay and neuter, and how it can reduce the pet population. She believes Ambassadors mission is driven by compassion and kindness towards both the pet owner and their pets.
Kathy Cates
Dennis Smith
Ambassadors Volunteer
Gary joined our team in January 2023. He and his wife, Rosemary had been loyal customers of our thrift shop for years. Gary had retired from the Anderson Public School System several years earlier, he then tried his hand at selling furniture and finally settled on spending his "golden years" working with our team. Gary picks up pet food donations from donors, transports cats for surgeries, and he also serves as our "door man" when our store is open. To say that Gary is a valued and respected team member would be an understatement. Gary is dependable, committed and always willing to help with any task that is asked of him. Gary says what he loves most about Ambassadors is "everything....very good people here doing good work....we help each other and in turn we help our customers and their animals". Gary has a huge heart for the animals and has 2 dogs, 5 cats and one bird. This is in addition to his human family, which includes his son who passed who away last year, a daughter, 7 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.