BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Lori Weise
Founder & President
Lori Weise founded Downtown Dog Rescue in 1996 and brings 19 years of experience managing the DDR kennel, delivering community spay/neuter programs, and is the founder of the South LA Shelter Intervention Program. Lori has been honored by many for her service including the City of Los Angeles and Found Animals Foundation. She is the 2014 recipient of the ASPCA Henry Berg Award, and the 2013 recipient of the Wallace Award. Lori was one of the founding members of the Best Friends Animal Society's initiative NKLA and advised the ASPCA on their Safety Net Program at LA county shelters. In addition to overseeing DDR operations, she is a national speaker on community programs and the shelter intervention model of keeping pets in homes. Lori has been the General Manager of Modernica Inc for 19 years.
Debbie Fan
Treasurer & Adoption Manager
Debbie Fan has been a volunteer with Downtown Dog Rescue since 2008 and she joined the board in 2013. Debbie brings over fifteen years of experience as a City of Los Angeles Animal Services volunteer and has extensive experience working with dog behavior issues and counseling the public before and after adoption. In addition to her treasurer role she manages our adoption program and evaluates shelter dogs coming into our rescue and works extensively with adopters—from application to delivery and training. Debbie is also and actor and lives with her husband and three dogs.
Richard Tuttelmondo
Secretary
Richard Tuttelmondo is is a second generation dog rescuer and founding member of Downtown Dog Rescue. He adopted Tina (pictured here) when she became available at the shelter after being released from an animal cruelty case that DDR helped to prosecute. In addition to serving as secretary of the board, Richard was responsible for overseeing all construction aspects for building our Second Chance Kennel in South Gate. He remains very hands on with the dogs up for adoption, and continues to be an active participant in our community events development and planning. Richard has been the Plant Manager of Modernica for 20 years and was awarded Dwell Magazine’s Nice Modernist Award in 2000. He lives, and hikes, in Los Angeles with his beloved Tina.
TEAM MEMBERS
Sandy Dragotis
Hotline Coordinator
Sandy Dragotis has been volunteering with DDR for more than ten years. After finding a dog on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, she met Lori and asked for her guidance trying to find the dog a home. It turned out that both Sandy and Lori worked in the same area and were dealing with helping the many homeless people and pets they encountered regularly. Sandy began joining Lori at her dog adoption events, and eventually handled most of the adoption events entirely. These days, she manages the two English-speaking DDR hotlines.
Amanda Brooks
Gratitude Coordinator
Amanda Brooks adopted a Pitbull mix about eight years ago. A few years after that, she started fostering dogs, and that’s when she learned about Lori and DDR through the rescue community. She was immediately drawn to their unique stance on pet overpopulation, and was impressed with how the organization ran. Since then she has been working in dog rescue in Los Angeles for the past five years and has served as DDR's Gratitude Coordinator for the past several years, managing donations and sending acknowledgements with tax-receipts. Amanda lives with her husband, their two animal-loving children, two rescue dogs, two rescue cats, a toad, and several fish.
Jenny Eav
Kennel Manager
Jenny Eav started working at the DDR kennel in 2017 and became kennel manager in 2019. She has years of experience working with dogs as a volunteer with Los Angeles Animal Services and also as a lead handler at Berkeley Animal Care Center where she ran their playgroups. Jenny works full time at our kennel where she provides care and coordination of medical needs, socialization, and working with volunteers. She was the forever foster for Lacy Cakes and also been hospice and weekend foster to many DDR dogs, including Buster who is pictured with her. You can follow her and DDR dogs on IG @lacycakesofddr