About Us
Marian's Dream is a 501(c)3 public charity, directed by a stellar Board of Directors.Directors
Esther MechlerFounder
Biography
Helen Banks
Founder, Second Chance for Greyhound
Biography
William McKelvy
Founder, Humane Alliance of Western North Carolina
Biography
Len Mitchell
Philosophy professor
Biography
Gordon B. Stull, V.M.D.
Director of the Burlington County Feral Cat Initiative
President of Millennium Wildlife Sciences
Biography
Hope Tarr, Ph.D.
Organizer of the successful campaign for a USPS spay/neuter stamp
Biography
Honorary Board
Karla Brestle, DVMMedical Director, National Spay/Neuter Response Team
Asheville, North Carolina
Joyce Briggs
President, Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs
Brenda Griffin, DVM, MS, DACVIM
Adjunct Associate Professor of Shelter Medicine
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida
Marvin Mackie, DVM
Animal Birth Control
Quita Mazzina
Executive Director, Humane Alliance, National Spay/Neuter Response Team
About the Founder
The founder and President of Marian's Dream is Esther Mechler.
Ms. Mechler's areas of expertise include grassroots organizing, leadership development, information networking and the implementation of projects and programs to end the cat and dog surplus. She began her work in the humane movement when she founded Animal Rights Hawaii and helped to establish Animal Advocates in Massachusetts. Ms. Mechler was also a founding member of both the Fairfield County, Connecticut branch of Friends of the Animals, and the national Animal Rights Network. She also helped to found Animals Agenda, the magazine.
As part of Marian's Dream, Ms. Mechler co-produced the video, Throwaways along with its Spanish-language equivalent Rechazados, addressing the overpopulation of cats and dogs. The video, produced with funding from the ASPCA, comes with a teaching guide and poster. Ms. Mechler also co-produced A Voice in the Wilderness and created the successful Focus on Animals program, making more than 70 animal-related film and video titles available at a reasonable cost.
In 1990, Esther Mechler founded SPAY/USA. Originally a program of Marian's Dream, SPAY/USA is now a program of The North Shore Animal League America, operating a toll-free hotline with two full-time phone counselors to help callers find low cost/high quality spay/neuter services in their areas.
Ms. Mechler is in demand as a regular speaker at seminars and conferences in the U.S. and overseas. She has tirelessly assisted with the startup of hundreds of affordable spay programs and clinics, both fixed-site and mobile throughout the United States. Thanks to Ms. Mechler's SPAY/USA model and willingness to share, replication programs have begun in other nations, including Spay/Israel, Spay/Costa Rica, and Spay/Panama. For her work, Esther Mechler won the prestigious Geraldine R. Dodge Award for Humane Ethics in Action in 1995.
Ms. Mechler received her Bachelor's Degree from Bates College, spending her Junior year in Geneva, Switzerland studying with psychologist Jean Piaget. Her M Ed and Sixth Year degrees are from The University of Rochester in Education.
Biographies
Helen Banks In her lifetime, Helen Banks has saved thousands of homeless/abused dogs, cats and horses. For 25 years, she brought horses back to her farm from slaughterhouses and “killer auctions” in Connecticut and New York. Injured wildlife from deer to turtles were always on her list. She campaigned against the leghold trap and the Humane Society’s use of gas chambers in Connecticut. She is a firm believer in spay/neuter for dogs/cats and birth control shots for deer, wild horses and any other animals condemned as “nuisance” due to overpopulation and loss of habitat.
Bill McKelvy has nearly thirty years of animal-related community service, beginning in his home region of the Carolinas, then spreading nationwide. Member of Buncombe County Animal Control and Animal Service Advisory Board and Animal Ordinance Review Board, he served on the Board of Directors of Friends for Animals and then founded Humane Alliance of Western North Carolina, an organization which served twenty-three counties and thirty nonprofit animal welfare organizations. This organization has gone on to provide a model for high-volume, high quality spay/neuter clinics nationwide. Bill retired after eleven years as president, and is now President Emeritus. He maintains an active schedule and has received numerous awards for his service and his vision.
Len Mitchell is a lawyer and a philosopher. He spent the first 25 years of his career as a lawyer, primarily with Time Warner in New York City. After that career he studied philosophy and now holds a Ph.D. in philosophy. He has taught at several universities, and is now teaching at Brooklyn College and Pace University. All his life he has had an intellectual and emotional attachment to animals, and is very happy to be associated with Marian’s Dream in its work on improving the plight of companion animals.
Gordon B. Stull, V.M.D., is a companion animal veterinarian with over 25 years experience of practice. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1971, Dr. Stull has served the South Jersey area both as a practitioner and practice owner, Dr. Stull has been active in the animal welfare movement and served as a member of New Jersey Governor Corzine’s Animal Welfare Taskforce in 2004-5. Dr. Stull has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights and is currently a member of the Leadership Council of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Stull is the Director of the Burlington County Feral Cat Initiative, a countywide initiative offering free spay/neuter to feral cat caregivers in Burlington County, New Jersey. He is also President of Millennium Wildlife Sciences, which currently is involved in a joint research project with the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and Six Flags Great Adventure developing and testing an injectable sterilant for male black bears.
Hope Tarr, Ph.D. A lifelong animal lover, Hope Tarr holds a Master's Degree in
Developmental Psychology and a Ph.D. in Education from The Catholic
University of America. In 1997 Hope launched a national grassroots
campaign, The Pet Overpopulation STAMP OUT with the goal of winning
issuance by the US Postal Service of a commemorative postage stamp to
educate the American public about the importance of spaying/neutering
companion animals. Ultimately endorsed by numerous celebrities, politicians
from both main political parties, veterinary and public health
organizations, animal welfare advocates and yes, animal lovers throughout
the country, the STAMP OUT not only reached its goal but exceeded it.
In September 2002, more than 250,000 "Spay/Neuter Your Pet" stamps were issued nationwide. Bearing the adorable photographs of "Kirby" and "Samantha," a former shelter puppy and kitten, the stamps also included a toll-free telephone number in English/Spanish and a web site linking to a national database of spay/neuter resources, including reduced-cost. "Spay/Neuter" was a record sell-out item, second in postal history to the ever popular "Elvis" commemorative stamp.
The award-winning author of more than a dozen "animal friendly" commercial fiction novels, Hope currently lives in New York City. Please visit Hope online at www.hopetarr.com and be sure to check out her web site's "Best Friends" section for a behind-the-scenes look at the real-life rescue cats that have inspired the feline characters in her books.
