Board of Directors
Jennifer Mathers | President
Jennifer was born and raised in the Bay Area and comes from a family of animal lovers and advocates. She began working with animals at a local shelter as soon as she was old enough, and her passion for people and animals led her to a 20-year career dedicated to the animal welfare industry, including 15 years at SVACA. In December 2021, she made the difficult decision to leave her role as SVACA’s Shelter Manager, but she couldn’t turn her back on the animals and the community she loves so much— Jennifer now contributes her unique and valuable perspective, and decades of experience, to Friends of SVACA. She is deeply committed to furthering the organization’s mission and driving meaningful, lasting impact for animals and the people who care for them.
Joan Amaratti | Vice President
Joan has been working in animal rescue since she was a child, assisting her parents with wildlife rehab in Ohio. She first became involved with SVACA in 2012 as a foster parent, assisted at events, and then began volunteering as a cat and dog socializer. She is passionate about understanding and mitigating the causes of animal surrender, and to that end spent four years apprenticing and attending classes to become a dog trainer, culminating in the completion of the Marin Humane Society Behavior Academy. Previously, Joan was Treasurer of the Board for Sanctuary One, the first care farm established on the West Coast. She has a decade of professional experience in nonprofit development. She now spends her days as an operations manager at an autonomous driving technology company and her evenings and weekends with her first SVACA foster fail kitty, Denver.
Alex Leung | Treasurer
As a child, Alex had pets, but dogs always had a special place in his heart. When he lost a beloved cocker spaniel after 13 years, he came to SVACA looking to fall in love again. A two pound ball of fur named Maia opened his heart again and now keeps him very busy. Alex has been a SVACA volunteer committed to helping animals find new homes ever since.
Sayaka Nethercutt | Secretary
Sayaka volunteers with SVACA in addition to acting as the Friends board Secretary. She finds taking animals to offsite events to interact with the public particularly rewarding. Although she works in high tech now, her dream is to one day leverage her animal communication and Reiki skills to team up with an animal to provide therapy-related services to others. Sayaka and her husband have one cat, their beloved Maggie.
Jeanie Ramos | Director
Jeanie currently volunteers with SVACA in a number of areas including fostering, community outreach and shelter events. She feels strongly about helping animals and giving back to her community. Her favorite task is kitten fostering, where her entire family contributes to the effort. Jeanie is excited to contribute her skillset to FoSVACA and continue their mission of saving animals. Her hobbies include dancing hula with her halau, playing with her two adopted SVACA cats (Indy and Onyx) and playing ice hockey at Sharks Ice alongside her husband.
Nancy Kwan | Director
Nancy has proudly supported SVACA as a volunteer since 2019, bringing over 10 years of experience in nonprofit operations and private-sector human resources. She is committed to responsible leadership, helping guide the organization’s mission and support a compassionate community for animals and those who care for them. A Bay Area native and lifelong lover of nature and animals, she enjoys bird watching, gardening, and daily walks in the park with her rescue dog, Riley, who happily takes his time stopping to sniff just about everything along the way.