Debra currently volunteers her time as a co-lead with the Bunny Brigade at the VCAS Camarillo shelter. She also serves on the VCAS safety committee and fundraising committee. She is also the owner of Pawsitive Boarding which boards small animals.
Debra’s full-time job is the Director of Finance with the Search Dog Foundation where she has been working since 1997. With over 20 years of experience in Search and Rescue, Debra served as a FEMA-Certified Canine Search Specialist with her Search Dog Abby as a member of California Task Force 1. She was deployed to the 9/11 World Trade Center, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the La Conchita mudslide near Santa Barbara. She also deployed on other urban and wilderness searches while acting as Search Dog Foundation’s (SDF) Program Director and Captain of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue team. Debra served 10 years on the FEMA Canine Sub-Group and as a FEMA Search Team Testing Evaluator for 15 years. In 2005, she retired from active emergency service to take the board’s offered role of SDF’s Executive Director, a position Debra held until April 2017, when she switched to her current position.