Meet the Team

Brenda works at Kemin Industries in Des Moines.  She and her husband Bob have been involved with dogs since 1990 when they started showing basenjis.  She also became involved in lure coursing and obedience. After moving to Minnesota, Brenda was active in training and working their German shepherd in search and rescue. Brenda and Bob now live in Ankeny with their two sons, Dakota and Jake.  They share their home with two German shepherds, Mac and Gypsy, and a basenji, Nikon.  With the help of her family, Brenda is excited to work with Puppy Jake Foundation to support our veterans by currently raising Jeff.

Erin is a junior at Southeast Polk High School. She enjoys baking, singing and putting a smile on other people's faces. Along with her parents she helped raise Skippy, an energetic, lovable golden retriever, who is now placed with his Veteran.

Kris has just finished raising NICOLE, who was placed with her wounded Veteran in May 2018. Kris learned about Puppy Jake Foundation at a program to her PEO chapter shortly after PJF's inception. It is an ideal organization to marry up 3 of her great passions: the privilege of being a Patriotic American, coming from a long line (2 grandfathers, dad, uncle and brother) of Veterans/returning the favor of SERVING Veterans who so willingly protect her freedoms, and PUPPIES!  Kris is an avid Cyclones fan where Nicole gets exposure to season football and basketball games, the annual Big XII basketball tournament and a road trip to an away Big XII football stadium each fall. In Kris' professional life, she serves as a mortgage loan specialist for Premier Lending Alliance, where providing home loans for Veterans is also a privilege.  She currently helps with any and all puppies that need some help!

Vicki has been proud to be a part of the Puppy Jake family since 2014.  Vicki raised and trained Hazel who was placed with her Veteran in December 2018.  She is now a fill-in foster.  Always ready to help with any dog when needed.  After retiring from Wells Fargo, she felt she needed a way to give back to our veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.  Puppy Jake Foundation is the perfect way to do this!  Vicki lives in Des Moines with her husband, Bill, and their Sheltie, Connor.

With the help of their daughter Jennifer, Angie is the Foster for RUSTY and Brian is the foster for PJ.  Angie is the Head Cook at Dowling Catholic High School, Brian is the Business Manager at Iowa Catholic Radio as well as a part time accounting professor at two local universities.  Jennifer is a sophomore at Dowling High School.  Angie first became involved with PJF in early 2015 as a puppy sitter for Bucky.  The entire family believes that they owe a debt of gratitude to veterans and look forward to the life changing effect RUSTY and PJ will have when they graduate.

Sara is a manager at Wells Fargo, where she works with the best team on earth! She originally got involved with PJF when she coordinated multiple fundraisers for Puppy Jake through the Wells Fargo annual Community Support Campaign, and before she knew it, she found she was raising the adorable fluffy monster known as Max the service dog. Sara is actively involved in her community, and has always championed veterans causes, so she is thrilled that she and her 7 year old daughter have this opportunity to give back to those who have done so much for our country. 

Kim has been a Registerd Nurse for over 30 years with a speciality in surgical intensive care, heart/kidney transplant coordinator and electrophysiology at Iowa Heart. Kim has always had a dog in her life to help buffer the stresses in society. She has been involved in agility, NADAC, and dock diving.  Her dogs held  certifications with PetPartners which involved engaging autistic children with their therapies. They were also certified with the national Animal Assistive Crisis Response (AACR).  She said "My #1 bucket list is to train a service dog for a veteran. I feel honored with this opportunity and am truly humbled by their service. Thank you Puppy Jake!"

Mary and Stefan enjoy donating their time and energy to Veterans organizations. Mary is the State Coordinator for Missing in America Project.  Mary and Stefan are Patriot Guard Rider volunteers and currently fostering Bruce a very sweet, high-energy boy.

Christy Dimit and Bryan Stamper were the foster family and trainers of Lake. Lake was named after Ssg Chad Lake. Lake was placed with her Veteran in December 2018.  With great sorrow and honor, Ssg Chad Lake passed away fighting in the Iraq War in 2005. Christy and Bryan found their vocational calling to train a service dog with a desire to give back to their country through helping a veteran live life more comfortably back at home. They also love helping other people in any way they can as well as learning about dogs and how to better train and read their body language. Christy graduated with a B.A. in April of 2018 to become a therapist in animal-assisted therapy, and Bryan hopes to land a career in veterinarian or engineering. 

Jan Moore joined the Puppy Jake Foundation in August of 2016 when she began fostering DJ for two years. She has enjoyed working with horses and dogs since a young age. Because of her current passion for helping friends with their dogs, she was encouraged by a friend to volunteer for the PJF. Jan's husband, her four kids and her golden retriever have all played an important part in DJ'S training.   DJ was placed with his Veteran in December 2018.  Jan is now training Cable.

Both Shannon and Rob work for Wells Fargo where they discovered Puppy Jake Foundation and wanted to get involved. Each have family members who are veterans and want to give something back to those that mean so much and have done so much for us all. They have been together for nine years and married for three. They have four wonderful boys and a beautiful female black lab of their own. They both love spending time outdoors and going places with their Labrador retriever. 

Aundrea(Andie) Cox is a high school student at Van Meter who has been a part of Puppy Jake Foundation since January 2016. She is one of the foster and trainers for the service dogs in training through the program. Her first pairing was with a Yellow Labrador named Digger. They did great together and had a lot of fun too. Unfortunately, due to some intense allergies and separation anxiety, Digger was re-careered. Aundrea gladly adopted Digger and has now certified him as a therapy dog. Still desiring to fulfill her commitment to Puppy Jake Foundation, she took on the responsibility of fostering and training another dog. Aundrea wanted to dedicate a thank you towards her school because of how supportive they have been with Digger going to school daily too. By setting up and proceeding with a school-wide fundraiser, Aundrea raised over $2,000 from the students at her school in order to grant them the naming rights to a puppy that would join Puppy Jake training team. With that, Aundrea was paired with a Golden Retriever named Spirit during the summer of 2017. With a house full of wet noses and wagging tails, the future looks fun and furry!

Dr. Robinson grew up in Southwest Iowa. He completed his undergraduate studies at Drake University, medical school at Des Moines University, and his adult psychiatry residency at the University of Iowa. He has experience with child/adolescent, adult and geriatric patients in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. His primary practice, Iowa Psychiatry, is located in Urbandale, Iowa.

Jennifer Hirakawa is from Ewa Beach, Hawaii were she attended Pearl City High School, Academy of the Pacific, and Graduated from Kaimuki High School in 1988.  Jennifer attended De Anza College, in Cupertino, CA where she enlisted in the Army in 1990 as a military police officer. 

Jennifer retired from the Army in May of 2012 with the rank of Master Sergeant (MSG).  Jennifer’s military career included many postings and positions, to include Military Police patrol, Team Leader, Squad Leader, Platoon Sergeant, Military Police Investigator, Military Police K-9, Training NCO, Military Police Customs NCO, Recruiter, Deployed Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, Equal Opportunity Advisor, and the Senior Enlisted EOA for the Iowa National Guard.  Jennifer was stationed at Ft Eustis, VA; Berlin, Germany; Schweinfurt, Germany; Fort Carson, Colorado and the State of Iowa.  During Jennifer’s career she deployed multiple times for both short and long deployments (IFOR, SFOR, OEF) and others. 

Jennifer’s love for animals and specifically dogs and horses came early in her life when her parents got her a German Shepard from Hawaii Protection Dogs.  Jenn began working with her dog (JP) and volunteering at the Hawaii Human Society when she was in middle school walking the dogs, and learning from the trainers there and HPD. Jennifer continued to work with and train dogs during her military career while stationed in Germany and in Colorado.

In 2012 after Jenn retired from the Army, she graduated from the Animal Behavioral College with Honors and began training dogs and humans to help them form a better human-canine bond.  Jenn has worked with all different breeds and temperaments, including working with Service Dogs.  Jennifer is excited to be part of Puppy Jake Foundation’s staff working with Military Organizations in the capacity of Military Outreach Coordinator.  As a veteran herself she understands the loopholes, dilemmas, and issues that veterans may have navigating the military and VA systems.   She looks forward to helping Veterans achieve their goals of independence and hopes to help veteran organizations understand the benefits that service dogs bring to fellow veterans.

• Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT)
• International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC)
• Truly Dog-Friendly Coalition of Trainers
• Pet Professional Guild (PPG)
• Committee member of the Winterset Dog Park
• American Kennel Club (AKC) S.T.A.R. Puppy Trainer and Evaluator
• American Kennel Club (AKC) Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Certified Evaluator
• APDT Canine Life and Social Skills (C.L.A.S.S.) Trainer
• APDT Canine Life and Social Skills (C.L.A.S.S.) Certified Evaluator
• Co-Founder of the Iowa Modern Dog Training and Behavioral Trainers Network
• Co-Founder of Adventure Dogs of Iowa
• Life Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)
• Life Member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV)
• Many other veterans groups and organizations

Jeff Link works as an Iowa-based entrepreneur, lawyer and communications consultant with a deep background in government and politics at the state and federal levels in the U.S. and abroad.  Link’s experience in government, paid media strategy, data analytics, public opinion-research and crisis communications and offers a strong background for clients.  Link’s work in campaigns has dovetailed with his experience in government.  Link was the first staff member of Gov. Bill Clinton’s campaign in Pennsylvania in October of 1991 while working for Pennsylvania’s Speaker of the House, Robert W. O’Donnell.  Clinton secured the nomination in 1992 with his win in Pennsylvania and went on to win the White House in November carrying Pennsylvania in the general election.

After successfully managing Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) 1996 reelection campaign, Link served in Washington, D.C. as Sen. Harkin’s Chief of Staff from 1997 until 1999.  In 1999 Link returned to Iowa to obtain his law degree from Drake University. He graduated in 2002 with honors and won the National Moot Court Championship in New York City in 2001.

During law school, Link founded Link Strategies, served as the Gore-Lieberman 2000 state director in Iowa which defeated George Bush by 4,144 votes out of 1.3 million cast.  Link also led Gore’s efforts from 1997-2000 to win the Iowa Caucus and secure the nomination against Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ).  Link managed Senator Harkin’s 2002 reelection campaign while finishing law school in May of 2002.  Senator Harkin was reelected to a fourth term in November 2002.  In 2008 Link served as Deputy Director of Paid Media and Research to the Obama for America Campaign.  In that role, he coordinated all paid media and polling in 25 states including seven battleground states (VA, NC, FL, CO, NM, NV, MT). President Obama won 6 of these 7 battleground states in 2008.

In addition to directing the message development through polling, focus groups, web tests and ad testing in these target states, he directed the advertising strategy and media mix with TV and cable buys, created state-specific ads, direct mail and collateral materials.  Also, Link managed the Spanish language messaging for the campaign through advertising, polling and focus groups.

Link’s political work has also taken him to Aruba, where he managed the opposition party in Aruba’s parliamentary elections.  The election, held in July 1994, saw the opposition party, the Aruba Volks Party (AVP), win a plurality, form a government and elect Henry Eman as Prime Minister. In 2009 Link again advised the AVP during the parliamentary elections and successfully saw Mike Eman elected as Prime Minister in September.  Adding to Link’s international experience, he worked in Ukraine as the advisor to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s campaign for President in Ukraine.  In 2009 Yulia was successful in advancing to the run-off election held in 2010.  Link advised the Hungarian Socialist Party during their parliamentarian elections, conducted public opinion research for President John Mahama’s successful election in Ghana (2012) and for Raila Odinga in Kenya (2013).

Simon Conway is a talk show host and broadcaster. His show is heard on multiple Iowa radio stations including his home station, the iconic News Radio 1040 WHO - the most decorated radio station in American history. He handles Afternoon Drive from 4-7pm each weekday.

Hailing from London, England, Simon has run a number of very successful businesses including a Corporate Communications Company in England and property management and real estate brokerage companies in Florida.  Before any of that, he was a journalist in both Israel and England.

Simon became involved with Puppy Jake Foundation almost from the very beginning and has held a number of highly successful fund raisers as well as contributing to raising awareness of PJF.
 

His other charitable works include children’s cancer charities and the Pacific Battleship Center where he is a member of the Board of Trustees.

Rebecca Beach (Becky) is a fundraiser, event planner and consultant. In early 2013, Becky founded Puppy Jake Foundation. Becky is from a long line of military service and patriotism.  Both of Becky’s grandfathers served as doctors in WWII, her father as a doctor in the U.S. Army, and her husband as active duty in the Vietnam War.   Her love of animals led her to become a Certified Trainer from the Animal Behavior College (ABC).  She and her husband, Charlie, reside in Des Moines, IA with their dogs.

Becky’s wide and diverse range of clients in her political career has included Senator Charles Grassley, President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush, Lamberti for Congress and others. Her political career began in 1978 while serving as Personal Assistant to Barbara Bush for four years. She is currently on the Finance Committee for the George W. Bush Library Center in Dallas. After working in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Becky returned to her home state of Iowa in 1993. Becky’s current projects, in addition to Puppy Jake Foundation include Terrace Hill Restoration project, On With Life capital campaign, The Iowa Barnstormers, and Pacific Battleship Center (USS Iowa).

Her dog training professional affiliations include:

• Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP) Graduate 2015
• Karen Pryor "Puppy Start Right" course, Graduate 2015
• Animal Behavior College (ABC) graduate 2015
• Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), member 
• National Security Roundtable (NSRT), Command and General Staff College, April, 2012
• TAGteach International Certified Primary Level Certification, 2015
• TAGteach International Certified Level 1 Certification, 2015

Arika Hammond is currently a Freshman in Cherokee, IA.  Her parents are June and Tracy Hammond.

Arika enjoys dancing, singing, and performing with the Cherokee Community Theater.  She is also a member of the CMS Student Council, Cherokee County Sharp Shooters (Archery 4-H Club), and Cherokee County Cavaliers (Horse-based 4-H Club).  Arika has a passion for animals and loves caring for her Bichon (Theo), Snowshoe cat (Simon), her pony (Rosie), her horse (Scooter), and a host of farm cats. 

Arika is proud to be a part of Puppy Jake Foundation and enjoys telling others about its mission at various fundraisers and veteran events in Northwest Iowa and Southeast South Dakota.  Her volunteer efforts have helped raise several thousand dollars for Puppy Jake Foundation. 

Carley is a 6th grader at Fairfield Middle School in Fairfield, Iowa. Her parents are Troy and Jody Seeley. 

She enjoys Cross Country, Track, Golf, Dance, Tae Kwon Do, Student Council, 4-H, Theater, Drama Club and Art. She also spends a lot of her time with her bulldog, Bella.

Carley has been involved in several fundraising efforts and awareness activities for Puppy Jake Foundation in the past five years. 

Maggie graduated Loyola University Chicago with a degree in Spanish and Ethics & Moral Philosophy and moved back to her hometown of Des Moines a year later.  Maggie’s fondness for charitable work began when her dad started volunteering with the Salvation Army on a weekly basis and was encouraged by her mom, a retired administrator with the Des Moines Public Schools.  Her love of Labrador retrievers comes from her last dog, a Chocolate Lab mix named Biff.  This all made Puppy Jake Foundation a perfect fit.  Maggie and her husband reside in Des Moines with their bulldog, Boo.