Clermont Animal CARE Board of Directors

Julie Bauke

Board President

Julie Bauke is the Chief Career Advisor of The Bauke Group, a Strategic Career Advisory firm. She is the Careers and Jobs Expert on Cincinnati’s 700WLW Radio, the author of “Stop Peeing On Your Shoes: Avoiding the 7 Mistakes that Screw Up your Job Search”, and a professional speaker on career and workplace issues. Her career includes Human Resources leadership roles with companies in a variety of industries and significant experience in career management services and has worked closely with diverse individuals, from CEO’s to professional athletes, coaching them in pursuit of their best “career life”.

A lifelong animal lover and supporter of multiple animal charities, Julie is focused on developing and growing CACHS to be the leader in progressive animal sheltering in our region and beyond. She is a graduate of Purdue University.

Carolyn Evans

Executive Director

Carolyn is a founding member of Clermont Animal CARE Humane Society (CACHS) and volunteers as the organization’s Executive Director. It was Carolyn’s vision to support the Best Friends Animal Society No Kill 2025 Initiative that led to the formation of CACHS in October 2017 and the decision to bid on the contract for the Clermont County animal shelter.

Carolyn’s extensive collaborative work in the Cincinnati-area animal welfare community enabled her to pull together a strong coalition of like-minded individuals and organizations to work toward implementing proven lifesaving programs and the successful animal shelter bid. She is the founder and Board President of My Furry Valentine, host of Greater Cincinnati’s largest animal adoption event celebrating more than 7,000 adoptions in 9 years; former Board President of United Coalition for Animals, Greater Cincinnati’s first and only high-volume spay/neuter clinic for cats and dogs performing more than 132,500 surgeries to date; and former Board Secretary for HeARTsSpeak, an international non-profit organization that unites art and advocacy to increase the visibility of shelter animals.

Carolyn holds a B.S. in Management from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from The Ohio State University. She has a decade of experience as a management consultant. She’s a proud graduate of the inaugural Best Friends’ Animal Society Executive Leadership Program, the first lifesaving certification for animal services executive level leaders in the nation. In addition to her charitable work, Carolyn’s pet photography studio, phoDOGrapher, has been photographing pets & their people for nearly two decades. She lives in Mt. Adams with her husband, their two animal-loving boys, and 3 rescue dogs Abby, Capt. Jack, and Sanchez, a CACHS alum.

Steve Hood, CPA

Board Treasurer

Steve is a Principal at Brixey & Meyer. Steve serves as a trusted business advisor to business owners, CEOs, CFOs and boards of advisors, driving value and accountability in the following strategic areas: succession & ownership planning, strategic planning, owners agreement structures, compensation planning, family business advisory & issue mediation, professional management practices, mergers & acquisition strategy, and family charter implementation.

April Besl

Board Member

April is a trademark and copyright partner with the law firm of Dinsmore & Shohl focusing her practice on the protection of trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights. A champion of the creative, she has extensive experience in safeguarding and enforcing the non-patent intellectual property rights of her clients including dealing with strategies and disputes related to the impact of social media, the web, and emerging technologies. A dog lover since birth, April grew up in the shadow of Kings Island on a 30-acre horse farm with two rambunctious wire hair fox terriers and later standard poodles. Today she lives in Loveland with her husband, twin daughters, and their Airedale terrier Zoey.

Dr. Julie O’Connell, DVM

Board Member

Dr. Julie O’Connell is the owner of Park Plaza Animal Hospital and a passionate advocate for progressive shelter medicine. She grew up on the West Side of Cincinnati, attended McAuley High School, then served in the United States Army for 3 years, before attending Colorado State University, where she graduated with a degree in Zoology. Dr. Julie then moved back to Ohio, to attend the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She graduated with her degree in Veterinary Medicine in 1995 and moved back to Cincinnati to practice.

Dr. O’Connell regularly lends her expertise to area animal rescues in an effort to educate others and inspire a progressive approach to caring for shelter pets in our region.

Kelli Sieber, RVT

Board Member

Kelli is a Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) in the state of Ohio and currently serves as our shelter Rescue Coordinator. She has ten years experience as an RVT, working for MedVet Medical and Cancer Center for Pets for the past seven years, and at CARE Center for three. Kelli studied Veterinary Technology at the University of Cincinnati where she actually obtained some of her practical training at the Clermont County shelter from 2009-2010. As Class President, Kelli led a project to fundraise for the the shelter to donate a Kuranda dog bed for every kennel.

Kelli serves the community as a Board Member of My Furry Valentine and Catholic Residential Services. She is also active in the rescue community through fundraising, volunteering, transport and fostering.

Christy Willard

Board Member

Christy is the head of Customer Service at American Modern in Amelia, OH. She leads a 200-person contact center that provides insurance policy acquisition and servicing support to agents and policyholders across the country. Passionate about best-in-class service delivery, process improvement, risk management and employee development; she drives her team to focus on creating processes that are easy for customers to understand and follow all while developing associates to progress in the career. A lifetime animal lover, Christy grew up right outside of Washington D.C. in the sleepy (not now) little town of Great Falls, VA with her dog Ginger and cat Tigger. Today she lives in Milford with her husband, two Corgis Charlie and Lexi along with two cats Domino and Bella.

Karen Brandenburg & Indy

Board Member

Karen is a Human Resource professional with a passion for entrepreneurial environments. Her professional career has included working in family-owned business, a Berkshire Hathaway company, start-up companies and several years as a Human Resource consultant working both on an independent basis and with a local firm. Today Karen partners with her husband in leading their 25+ year family business, Custom Built Crates, as Vice President of Human Resources & Administration. Karen has been dedicated to volunteering throughout her career and has held various positions at the local and state levels of SHRM. She currently holds the position of Vice President of the local chapter of SHRM, the Greater Cincinnati Human Resources Association. She lives in the Milford area with her husband, Eric and their two children. Karen enjoys spending time with family, caring for animals on their hobby farm, going to as many horse shows as possible and enjoying the outdoors.

Future Board Member

Board Member

If you have a passion to support the Clermont Animal CARE mission and want to be considered for a Board membership, please reach out to our Board President at Board.President@ClermontAnimalCARE.org.