Meet Our Team
Monica Ailey
President and Co-Founder
Monica’s passion for emergency response and investigations started in 2005 when she spent several weeks in New Orleans rescuing displaced animals after Hurricane Katrina. That experience led her to obtain the credentials needed to continue such work in the animal response field. In doing so, she has traveled all over the United States with national organizations like Red Rover, ARC, and HSUS NDART teams responding to disasters and large scale cruelty situations.
In late 2010, Monica accepted the position of Texas State Liaison for ARC, focusing on cases of animal cruelty in the state of Texas. This position also aimed to build relationships with law enforcement, animal control officers, and animal organizations across the state, offering resources in cases of large scale animal abuse, neglect, hoarding, etc. Her work as Liaison led to addressing needs outside the state of Texas as well, which resulted in a regional role that led her to become one of ARC’s Lead Responders throughout the country. Upon resigning from ARC in 2013, Monica returned to her roots to focus on investigations and response in her home state of Texas. Her work has resulted in the rescuing of hundreds of animals in dire situations across the state. Not only do the animals thank her, but so do her colleagues, as she recently received the Justice Award from Legacy Humane Society for these efforts.
Monica obtained her National Animal Cruelty certifications through the University of Missouri Columbia Law Enforcement Training Institute and is certified by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a Texas Animal Control Officer. She is Texas Academy of Animal Control Euthanasia Training certified and overall holds 30+ related certifications including FEMA, Red Cross, Pet CPR, and National Disaster Response.
Monica is a pit bull advocate who shares her couch with four rescued pits – all of which she fostered and ultimately adopted.
Paige Anderson
Executive Director and Co-Founder Emeritus
Paige began her career in animal advocacy simply by rescuing street dogs, addressing their medical needs, and finding them loving new homes. Seeing the great need in Dallas and realizing that she couldn’t do it alone, she started volunteering and fostering with an organization called Animal Rescue of Texas. From there, she began focusing on animal investigation and emergency response, working with ARC, a nation-wide organization.
Through her work with ARC, Paige deployed to many states witnessing firsthand the horrors of hoarding, puppy mills, and dog fighting. In 2013, she opted to leave ARC to concentrate on the specific needs of animals in Texas, and after, continued to work tirelessly alongside rescue organizations, law enforcement, and legislative networks across the state on behalf of the voiceless.
Paige received the Justice Award from Legacy Humane Society for her advocacy and investigative work partnering with local agencies to build criminal cruelty cases against large-scale animal abusers. Additionally, Paige served as President of Animal Rescue of Texas, a non-profit animal rescue group who has saved and homed over 700 previously discarded and unwanted pets. Her certifications included Texas Department of State Health Services, Certified Animal Control Officer, University of Missouri Columbia Law Enforcement Training Institute, Expert National Animal Cruelty Investigator, Certified Community Emergency Response Team, and Texas Academy of Animal Control Certified Euthanasia Training. She also attended multiple conferences and seminars yearly to continue her education and expand her advocacy network.
Our Board
Kristina Bowman
Director
A lifelong animal lover, Kristina started “rescuing” soon after learning to walk. Even as a small child she was known to bring home stray dogs, cats and injured wildlife and was never afraid of any animal. As an adult, wanting to be more involved in animal activism, Kristina became involved with The Humane Society of the United States and served on the National Executive Committee of The Genesis Awards in 2008 and 2009 and co-chaired the HSUS Spotlight Humane Gala (benefitting the Stop Puppy Mills Campaign) in 2010. She was also a volunteer on the HSUS rescue team.
As a founding board member of Animal Rescue Corps, she also served as a rescuer and documentary photographer which involved traveling all over the United States and Canada. After resigning from ARC, she decided to join forces with Animal Investigation and Response. Kristina is certified in DART (Disaster Animal Response Team), ABC’s of Investigating Animal Cruelty, FEMA and Animal CPR.
Kristina is a graduate of SMU and has been a professional photographer since she was in school. Although her main business is shooting society events, her passion is educating the public with her, often very disturbing, images of animal rescues. Asked about how she started shooting the rescues, Kristina said “when I was first asked to document the rescues, because we didn’t have a photographer, I was upset because I thought I was more beneficial as a rescuer, but after the first deployment as the photographer, I realized how incredibly important the images were. Even though some of the images are very graphic, they are essential, not only from a law-enforcement perspective, but also to show the world a glimpse of the horror the animals go through.” Kristina’s rescue images have been widely viewed and utilized within the animal advocacy world and one of her puppy-mill images was even featured in TIME Magazine in 2014.
Veronica Schranz
Secretary
Veronica’s passion began in 2004 when she realized the great need for rescue assistance concerning the over-abundance of local homeless animals. Since then, she has rescued and provided a foster home for over a hundred of these dogs and cats in need.
Veronica was also called and responded to Hurricane Katrina where she helped rescue dozens and dozens of different species of animals. After this life-changing experience, Veronica obtained her credentials to become a National Disaster Responder along with FEMA disaster related certificates and Red Rover Sheltering Certification. She also holds a Bachelor’s in Business Management / Finance and has spent 10 years working in the financial community in the Dallas area. Veronica and her husband share their home with 4 pit mixes and 4 cats.
Nicole Willingham
Treasurer
Nicole’s dog rescue journey started in 2010 when she was running on the Trinity Trail during her lunch break and two abandoned, skittish Basset Hounds changed her life for the better. She intended to find Hank and Lucy a good home, but they told her they already found it! Nicole started fostering with North Texas Basset Hound Rescue (NTBHR) in 2013 and is now the Vice President of the Board of Directors.
To date, she has fostered 18 dogs for NTBHR and Humane Tomorrow. Nicole began volunteering with AIR in 2016 and deployed to Houston in 2017 to assist with the Hurricane Harvey response. Nicole is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM). She has 15 years of federal government accounting experience and is currently a Supervisory Enforcement Analyst at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Departmental Enforcement Center. Nicole received her MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington and her Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Texas Christian University. When she is not crunching numbers or rescuing dogs, she enjoys swimming, triathlons, running, hot yoga, traveling, and spending time with her husband, family, and friends.
Anne Alonzo
Director
Anne comes to AIR with 30 years of volunteering and work experience with multiple organizations that advocate for and support both animals and people neglected or in need of assistance. A Wisconsin native, Anne’s passion for animals began at a young age when she found a tiny red-eared slider turtle that she named Porter.
Anne began her volunteer work when she and her young daughter volunteered together at the SPCA of Texas walking dogs and helping with adoption events. She also visited schools and bookstores with her dog, Bella, teaching kids from the SPCA’s coloring book, “Be Bite Free”. Later, she spent time volunteering with other groups, such as the Visiting Nurses Association and Friends Place Adult Day Services and worked for Dallas Habitat for Humanity.
In 2012, Anne refocused on her passion for animals and connected with the Texas Humane Legislation Network (THLN), an organization that advocates to address unjust animal welfare laws and stop cruelty before it starts. There, she helped with fundraising, events, conferences and volunteer management and became the North Texas chapter president in 2013 through early 2015. Her role at THLN helped her connect and volunteer with other animal advocacy groups, including Humane Tomorrow, Black Beauty Ranch and the Humane Society of North Texas, among others. Anne has her FEMA disaster certifications and has been volunteering with AIR since its inception in 2015, where she has found the hands-on, boots-on-the-ground work to be extremely rewarding.
Anne works in the tech industry as a manger for a manufacturer’s rep firm. In her free time, she loves to travel and be outdoors and enjoys hiking, kayaking, and rock hounding. Anne has two rescue cats, her foster failure, Olivia and her adoptive sister, Rosie.
Rebecca Tatsch
Director
Rebecca has been volunteering for over 10 years for a variety of animal advocacy organizations; and became an AIR volunteer in 2018. Some of her advocacy includes supporting and volunteering for AIR, bookkeeping and local event planning for Nowzad, interviews on behalf of Communities Foundation, participating in local adoption events, and fostering many dogs including newborn puppies and entire litters.
In her career, Rebecca has experience spanning over 25+ years in commercial property management focusing on maintaining of the physical assets, financial reporting, and implementing standard operating and risk management procedures on behalf of a variety of ownership entities. She holds an RPA Designation with the Building Owners and Managers Association; a CPM Designation with the Institute of Real Estate Management; and is a Licensed Texas Real Estate Salesperson.
Growing up on a farm in Central Minnesota, Rebecca began caring for animals at an early age. She moved to Texas in 1995, where she met her husband. They currently have seven rescued dogs: five rescued from Afghanistan and two rescued from the streets of Dallas.
Stacy Sutton Kerby
Director
Stacy’s career in animal advocacy began in 2012 as a hands-on volunteer with the Austin Humane Society and legislative liaison for the Texas Humane Legislation Network (THLN). Since then, Stacy has served in a variety of leadership roles with local, state-based and national animal protection organizations including as THLN Interim Executive Director and Director of Government Relations, Austin Bullhook Work Group (banning the use of pain-inflicting devices on performing animals) and Board Member for the Hailey Foundation.
Our Mission
Animal Investigation and Response’s mission is to connect law enforcement, animal control and communities with strategies and resources to assist with large scale cases of animal abuse. It is also our mission to provide skilled and certified resources for disaster Response needs.
Past Grants
March 2023
A grant in the amount of $2,000 was awarded to AIR by Greater Good in March of 2023. This grant was given to AIR to help replenish funds spent responding to the Burkburnett County pet store seizure of over 400 animals.
March 2023
A grant for in-kind items from 4 Imprint was awarded to AIR In March 2023, valuing $500.
October 2022
A grant in the amount of $5,000 from the ASPCA was awarded to AIR in October 2022. This was a disaster grant related to our response to the Upshur County tornadoes.
November 2021
A grant was awarded from The Helen D. and R.E. Wallace Foundation Fund at North Texas Community Foundation to AIR for camera upgrades for supplies our equip the Field Response Team.
March 2020
A grant in the amount of $1000 from Artist for Animals was awarded to AIR for camera upgrades for the two AIR Response Units
March 2020
A grant for in-kind items from Greater Good was awarded to AIR in March 2020, valuing $14,000
March 23, 2018
A grant in the amount of $147,007 from Red Rover was awarded to AIR on March 23, 2018. The grant included the following purchases: emergency animal response unit (trailer), emergency response truck, 500 plastic crates, 500 wire cages, the cost of insurance to cover the truck and trailer for three years, and a $5,000 disaster veterinary medical fund. AIR has made all of these purchases with the exception of the disaster veterinary medical fund.
November 22, 2017
A grant in the amount of $15,000 from GreaterGood.org was awarded on November 22, 2017 for AIR’s Hurricane Harvey disaster response efforts.
October 2, 2017
A grant in the amount of $50,000 from the Humane Society of the United States was awarded to AIR on October 2, 2017. The grant funds were used to purchase equipment and to educate volunteers and local authorities regarding how to respond to cases of large-scale animal cruelty and natural disasters impacting animals.
AIR is the ONLY mobile animal response unit servicing the entire state of Texas that assists authorities, with large-scale animal cruelty cases, & disaster response.
Recent Responses
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July 2023 – The Aristocats ResponseAugust 3, 2023/0 Comments -
March 2023 – Olney 26 ResponseMay 4, 2023/ -
February 2023 – Pet Posse ResponseMay 4, 2023/ -
Animal Shelter ResourcesApril 14, 2023/ -
Paige Anderson Education Fund Party & FundraiserMarch 13, 2023/ -
April 2023 Responder OrientationMarch 13, 2023/ -
Animal Extraction at Warrant Service – FREE ClassMarch 13, 2023/ -
2022 AIR Digital Holiday NewsletterNovember 30, 2022/
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Pet Fire SafetyJune 27, 2022/
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January 2022 -Smith CountyMarch 24, 2022/