Our Board of DirectorsOur Board of Directors

Herb Moniz – President

Herb Moniz was born in Long Beach , California in the mid fifties where he lived until 1964. His family then moved to Cherry Valley , California and lived close to two Thoroughbred horse ranches.

Herb was in heaven on earth! This is where he learned to care for animals on a professional basis. His time there, and skills learned on these ranches, was the foundation for his current success and aptitude for animal care of all kinds. As a child he spent many hours at the different animal attractions throughout Southern California with his family. They frequented Palos Verdes Bird farm, Griffith Park, Marine Land and more. Each time he came away with more and more enthusiasm for God’s creatures. He loved this so much that he accidentally fell into the chimpanzee pit at the San Diego Zoo at the age of eight

Herb loves all stages of animal care. His success in animal husbandry carries on today. For twelve years, Herb was the director of shelter operations at Save a Pet, Inc. helping 2000 animals a year. He sat on sub committees for the Valley Wide Animal Campus helping to create policies on humane treatment and care for animals. The Valley Wide Animal Campus is a multi-million dollar facility that was started as a result of a video tape that was shot by volunteers working with him at another local shelter exposing horrible conditions. This was in Cathedral City Ca. that contracted with California Animal Care which also provided animal services for cities of Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, Palm Desert.

Working with several Federal, State and Local agencies, Herb orchestrated and flew in animals to Palm Springs Airport in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita This was sponsored by T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oil tycoon, and his sister in-law, with many others including Michael Arms, making this airlift happen. Through his seminars Mr. Arms has inspired Herb to be the best he can be at sheltering and caring for homeless animals.

In 2007, Herb had to move from his home in Southern California to North Carolina to help a family member overcome breast cancer.

Colin Kelly – Treasurer

Colin moved from his home town of Madison, Wisconsin to escape the brutal winters of the midwest.  He first landed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he worked as a research technician in a virology lab at UNC – Chapel Hill.  After deciding that wasn’t where he belonged, he leveraged his life long love of animals at the now defunct Animal Protection Society of Orange County, where he worked as an Animal Control Officer under contract with the Chapel Hill Police Department.  During this time he enjoyed advocating for humane resolutions to the frequent clashes between wildlife and the human residents of the area as well as investigating reports of animal cruelty and resolving animal nuisance situations.

In 2001 Colin moved to Greensboro, North Carolina  for personal reasons and shifted his career toward the clinical side of animal care, working at Cobb Animal Clinic, and then at The Animal Emergency and Trauma Center of Carolina Veterinary Specialists.  He was not entirely satisfied with scope of what he could do for the lot of animals in our society, working as a veterinary technician.

In hopes of finding a more rewarding career, and to enable him to help animals on a more global level he began to pursue a degree in Accounting & Information Systems part-time, while working nights and weekends at AETC.  It was during this time that he met Herb and learned of his plans to open a no-kill non-profit animal shelter and rescue organization.  He immediately signed on to the plan and became a founding member of the board of directors.  Currently, Colin does the bookkeeping, website administration, and other miscellaneous administrative tasks for the organization.

Colin is currently self-employed, doing computer repair and support, web design, and various small business consulting activities.  Colin plans to sit for the CPA exam at some point in 2011, and is currently seeking work in the areas of IT, accounting/bookkeeping, and/or Laboratory work.

Wendi Wells DVM – Medical Director

Wendi graduated from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995. She completed a one-year rotating internship in Akron, Ohio. After spending that year with cold, cold and more cold, she relocated to beautiful, sunny North Carolina. She worked as an emergency doctor at the Forsyth Veterinary Emergency Clinic for 5 years. During that time she was also owner of VetScope Referral Endoscopy Service, a mobile endoscopy practice that served more than 30 general practices. In 2001 she was approached by Dr. Mark Nasisse, owner of Carolina Veterinary Specialists to help start the Animal Emergency and Trauma Center. She served as Director of the program for two years and is still currently employed there.

When she is not saving lives, she enjoys scuba diving, weight training and martial arts. In December of 2010 she achieved her 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Assuming her body holds together for several more year, she intends to pursue 2nd and 3rd degree.

Sylvia Mayon - Director of Fundraising

Branch Office Administrator with Edward Jones Investments
Vice President of Triad Real Estate Photography
Owner of Send Out Cards

Sylvia has been a valuable volunteer with the CVAAG since the very beginning. This year, (2011) she and her husband Andrew asked to join the board of directors. Bringing them on was a “no-brainer.”

Sylvia was born in Germany and immigrated to Janesville, WI in 1968.  In 1998 she met her current husband, Andrew on Love@aol and moved to Maui, Hawaii to be with him (and his cat Kekoa). They adopted their first born “Kona” (an 8 week old abandoned retriever mix) from the Maui Humane Society in 1999.  “Kona” was Sylvia’s  first dog and he is responsible for teaching her the power of a dog’s unconditional love.  He went everywhere with them and loved to play frisbee on the beach as well as swim in the ocean with them.  In 2004, Andrew, Sylvia, Kona and Kekoa moved from their little condo on Maui to a large home in Greensboro, NC.  Since they now had a big house, they thought it would be best to rescue another dog so that Kona would have someone to play with.  That is when Zeus joined their family.  Zeus was 8 weeks old and was abandoned in a home when his owners moved out and left him there by himself.  Kona and Zeus would become best buds.  In May, 2007 their little boy Ethan was born….now their family was complete!  However, in June, 2010 they took Kona for an exam and were told that his chest cavity was filled with cancer.  The next day they had to say good-bye to their wonderful dog of 11yrs – Sylvia’s shadow.  They were devastated as was Zeus.  In September of 2010 they adopted Wrigley a 2yr old Golden Retriever/Lab Mix.

When Sylvia has some free time she enjoys baking, fitness, traveling and music. She has traveled to many parts of Europe and Asia.  Sylvia LOVES being a part of CVAAG and coming up with creative ways to raise donations so that CVAAG can be all that Herb invisions it to be!
EMail Sylvia at: CVAAGFundraising@yahoo.com

Thomas Popowich