The AKI Team
(We are volunteers; we have no paid board or staff members)
AKI Board of Directors
Karen Menczer, Founder & Director
After living and working overseas since 1991, Karen started Animal-Kind International in 2007 to help animal welfare organizations that she worked with in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.
Karen has worked in international biodiversity conservation (with USAID) since 1991, and for over 40 years, has been active in animal welfare in the US and overseas. Since 1997, Karen has lived in Uganda, Botswana, Jamaica, Ghana, Namibia, and Cayman Islands (and in Ecuador in the 1980s), and over her career, she has worked in over 50 countries.
She is a contributor to and editor of the Africa chapter of the book, Long Distance Transport and Welfare of Farm Animals and with Aluizah Abdul-Yakeen, wrote The Bat Watcher for the book, The Unlikely Burden and Other Stories (published by World Society for the Protection & Care of Animals).
​
Along with AKI, Karen still works in the biodiversity conservation field, and wherever she goes, she meets local animal welfare advocates. She now lives in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, US with her husband and AKI Board member, Ron Stryker, 2 dogs, Sammie and Jakie, and 2 rescue donkeys, Sara and Bogie.
Betsie Van Dyke, Board Member & Secretary
Betsie has a degree in Library Science and has worked in library systems in the US states of Maryland, Georgia, New Mexico, and Alaska, including as an Assistant Director for the Albuquerque/Bernalillo Library System in New Mexico.
Betsie was the Chair for the Intellectual Freedom and Legislation Committee for the New Mexico Library Association and an Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Directors for the Municipal League of New Mexico as President of the Librarians sub-section. Betsie has extensive experience managing grants in literacy and summer reading activities. She has overseen all phases of grant-making programs, from review of applications to disbursement and oversight of funds.
Betsie is an animal welfare advocate, and also a literacy advocate. She brings to AKI her expertise in business development and information management, and of course, her love of animals. She lives in Delaware, US. Her dog Stella (pictured above with Betsie) recently passed away.
Karen Rae, Board Member
Karen recently returned to the US after living in Kathmandu, Nepal with her husband (Phil Broughton), 2 dogs and 1 cat-all rescues. Briefly they shared their home with a bull-calf who, like many sacred cattle in a Hindu country, wandered the streets of Kathmandu in search of food and water and was injured in a car accident. She volunteered for several years with the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre when the founder Jan Salter was alive.
A Brit by birth, Karen worked as a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles, before beginning a peripatetic life with her husband who ran various agriculture and micro finance projects funded by USAID. With their two daughters, Hannah and Rebecca, Karen volunteered at local animal shelters in countries in Asia, Africa, and Central America, helping with spay and neuter clinics, humane awareness, and fund raising events. Karen is now adjusting to life in their North Carolina home where she hopes to realize her dream of running a small vegetable farm populated with many rescue farm animals!
Dipesh Pabari, Board Member
Dipesh is the General Manager for Rift Valley Adventures. Prior to this, Dipesh was the General Manager for Camps International's Africa office.
Previously, he worked as an independent writer and consultant providing training, facilitation, technical assistance, and research in the areas of ICT, Media Campaigns, Fundraising, Strategic Communications, Education, and Event Management. And prior to that, Dipesh worked at World Society for the Protection of Animals-Africa.
Dipesh holds an MA in Social Anthropology (School of Oriental and African Studies) and has published widely on various topics. In 2006, Dipesh edited a short story anthology on animal welfare for children (The Unlikely Burden and Other Stories) that was translated into Kiswahili and was also accepted as a recommended reading book for Primary Schools in South Africa.
He sat on the Editorial Board for Awaaz (a journal for South Asians in Diaspora) and Wajibu (a journal of Ethical and Social Concern). He lives in Kenya with his wife, Elodie, daughter, and dog.
Barbara Abolafia, Board Member
Barbara is an Adjunct Professor of English at Bergen Community College. She has an MA in English Education and a BA in English. For over 18 years, she worked in sales and marketing at major publishing houses such as HarperCollins and Random House.
She has previously been a board member of the Hillsdale Free Public Library in New Jersey, and currently tutors reading and writing and helps with college essays. She lives in New Jersey, US with her husband, Glenn. Their beloved dog, Sheldon, recently passed away.
Jean Merriman, Board Member
Jean resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US, where she has been active in animal welfare for over 40 years. Her area of interest is community animal welfare—working with low income and disadvantaged people to help them take better care of their pets, and to help them access low cost spay/neuter surgeries.
Jean is adept at bringing people together to solve problems: she is quick to boil issues down, and identify practical solutions—even before a problem actually materializes. Jean lives with several dogs, most of whom were fosters who never left.
Ron Stryker, Board Member & Treasurer
Ron is a retired Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, where his areas of expertise were agriculture and conservation. He lived and worked overseas for 32 years. Ron lived in India, Indonesia, Morocco, Barbados, Honduras, Austria, Uganda, Jamaica, Botswana, and Ghana, and has worked in over 50 countries.
Ron now grows grapes, berries, and other fruit and vegetables on his small farm in New Mexico, plays blues and jazz on the keyboard, and is the strategic thinker behind AKI.
Founding Member David Pluth Memorial Page
On May 22, Animal-Kind International lost a board member and a wonderful friend, David Pluth. David was so much more than that though.
There were many sides to David—film maker, environmental consultant, agriculture and trade specialist, extreme climber, husky raiser and sledder, business owner, connoisseur of wines. See our AKI memorial to David.
Deborah Newman, Petite Taway: AKI Web Designer
Deborah Newman has been working with AKI for over 15 years as their web designer on multiple projects. Her daughter is an animal lover and is also an animal rights advocate.
​
Petite Taway is a full service web design and online marketing company with clients across the United States and beyond. Deborah Newman loves working with creative small businesses and nonprofits and loves her job and her mission to make each of her clients successful on the world wide web. Visit her website here.