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Conference Speaker Spotlight: Meet Meredith Jones

October 23, 2024, The Association

The Chief Community Initiatives Officer at Operation Kindness shares a sneak preview of what she’ll be sharing during her session at the pre-conference event, The Network Live, in November. And P.S., if you’re still on the fence about joining us in New Orleans, be sure to read the second question.

The Association: We can’t wait to see you in New Orleans—also known as the birthplace of jazz. In keeping with that theme, what are you most jazzed about these days?
Meredith Jones: My team! In just over 2 years, our Community Initiatives team has grown from 5 employees to nearly 40, and has provided compassionate and accessible care for over 50,000 pets. My team is the Louis Armstrong to my Ella Fitzgerald 😊 (that’s jazz, right?? Haha)

The Association: What are you most jazzed about for our time together?
Meredith Jones: Wait – so I get to hang out with friends from near and far, eat beignets, listen to how really incredible colleagues are making equally incredible impact, go on a ghost tour AND this is all a part of my job…what’s not to be jazzed about?

The Association: We are looking forward to your panel at The Network Live event on November 17 where you’ll discuss Keeping Families Together: Innovations in Shelter Support to Strengthen the Human-Animal Bond. Would you share a sneak peek for one idea that can help keep pets at home?  
Meredith Jones: A regular audit of the accessibility of all public-serving programs within our organizations. Many of us have implemented more open foster and adoption policies, but have we extended that same mindset to our pet assistance programs? Have we made it easier to adopt an animal but more difficult to ask for help? In order for our organizations to truly be a trusted community resource for pet owners, we want to be consistent in extending the same level of compassion, respect, and trust across all of our programs.

The Association: What can attendees prepare or think about before your session?
Meredith Jones: It can be really intimidating and even demoralizing to attend a panel where it seems the programs being presented are so far from what you can imagine implementing within your own organizations due to lack of funding, staff, overall resources and support, etc. All three of us panelists felt this way and experienced this at some point. To me, the greatest part about our panel is that everything we discuss is scalable. Pet retention can start with one person extending a listening ear and a compassionate heart to one pet owner. Could that one person be you?

The Association: What would you say to persuade someone who’s on the fence about why they should attend The Network Live?
Meredith Jones: Jill, Doug, and I have had a lot of fun preparing for our panel. While we may be closing out The Network Live event, we want our session to be the start of an on-going discussion of keeping families together. As the last session before The Annual Conference officially begins, we want to fill attendees with intrigue, hope, and excitement (and some laughs!), going into Day 1.

About The Association
The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement is a cohort of leaders on a mission to champion, advance, and unify the animal welfare profession.

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