Our Human Pack

Lexi Ham

Animal Care Intern of the Year

Lexi grew up in a small town in lower Michigan. She began her college career at Western Michigan University and had no idea what she wanted to do, until she took an environmental studies course. Soon after she was accepted into a field course through Wildlands Studies. She backpacked through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and learned about wolf, grizzly bear, and bison management. Suddenly, everything clicked into place and she was led onto a new path, which included wolves as her greatest passion. After transferring to Northern Michigan University in beautiful Marquette, Michigan she took every opportunity possible to gain experience in wolf behavior, wolf pack dynamics, and education/outreach. This goal has led Lexi to many unique and fantastic places post graduation, like Minnesota, Indiana, Alaska, and now New Mexico. Throughout it all Lexi has been lucky to meet so many amazing animals and humans that have made her path so enjoyable. Wild Spirit has already been a space for learning and having fun and the adventure has just begun!

Lexi is our 2023 Intern of the Year, but we’ve only had one intern so far this year. She is awesome!

Quinn was who Lexi wanted to be photographed with.

Mike Budd

Building and Maintenance Volunteer

VOLUNTEER OF THE DECADE!
Mike has been assisting our maintenance department for several years, and he personally handles many daily tasks that could otherwise fall to the wayside. Of course, our B&M team is always facing an overwhelming list of tasks, and Mike helps ensure that we are steadily accomplishing those tasks. Mike also goes on “meat-runs” for the sanctuary, meaning that he drives into Gallup or Albuquerque once a week to pick up meat donations for our rescues, without which we would not be able to survive.

Katie Forbis

Social Media Coordinator/Do-er of The Impossible

Katie was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee and is a life-long lover of wolves, a passion ignited the moment she first saw a photo of a grey wolf. In college, she studied business marketing and began her career doing strategic marketing in healthcare. However, corporate work could never satisfy her insatiable need to work with canids.

Her work with wolfdogs began in 2013 when she volunteered at her first sanctuary and increased substantially in January 2019 when she rescued a special needs low content wolfdog, Nymeria. Caring for a chronically naughty animal with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) and severe bilateral hip dysplasia forced Katie to learn on her feet very quickly. She sought out mentors who would aid in her education on wolfdogs, a core mission she aims to pass on to others interested in these animals.

While she currently lives in Nashville with her husband and dogs, she is excited to bring her marketing and social media knowledge to Wild Spirit and travels to the sanctuary as frequently as possible to keep a close pulse on the culture, priorities, and, of course, the animals.

A little known fact about Katie is that she was found, as an infant, in dumpster, explaining why she has an affinity for sour milk and over-ripe bananas.

Austin Hoffman

Animal Care Specialist

A fascination with wolves gradually grew in Austin after reading the works of Jack London as a kid. Many years later, after getting his undergraduate degree and working in the labor movement in his hometown of Kansas City, he decided it was finally time to pursue his passion for canids, which until then had remained dormant.

In 2016 Austin sold most of his worldly possessions and moved to rural southern Colorado, where he became the Education Coordinator at Mission: Wolf, a sanctuary for rescued wolves, wolfdogs and horses. Here Austin learned extensively about ecology and canid body language and sociality (and that Jack London didn’t know much about actual wolves!). He also discovered an unexpected love of chainsaws and silviculture.

His time at Mission: Wolf also caused Austin to question how and why wolves inspire such intense emotions in humans–from love and admiration to fear and hatred. This led him to a bittersweet departure from Colorado in 2019 to pursue his doctorate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation examines the history and politics of wolf and wolfdog breeding, how canids are commodified in the exotic pet trade, practices of interspecies care and communication, and how canids challenge generally accepted ideas of wildness and domestication.

Austin is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of a storied sanctuary like Wild Spirit, and to help care for the amazing animals here while also conducting his research.

Photo is of Austin and Denahi.

Brittany McDonald

Executive Director and Bonafide Nerd

Brittany first fell in love with wolves when she was just 8 years old and has been actively pursuing her dream of working with them ever since! Though she is Minnesota born and raised, her passion for wildlife has led her all over the United States where she has gained experience caring for wolves, big cats, primates, reptiles, and so many more.
As a long-time supporter of Wild Spirit, Brittany has always admired the sanctuary’s dedication toward making our rescues’ health and happiness our number one priority, and with her knowledge of concepts like animal health and behavior, enrichment, and operant conditioning, she’s excited for the opportunity to further contribute to that philosophy!

It goes without saying that the role of Executive Director is one that encompasses many responsibilities, but as she prepares to follow in the footsteps of those that came before her, Brittany is confident about her abilities to lead the team toward continued growth that will forever aim to honor each of the “wild spirits” that call the sanctuary home.

Stephanie Leitch

Gift Shop Manager & Superstar

Stephanie joined Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in 2019 working in the gift shop. She moved from the Philippines and is now living in the area. Stephanie helps with inventory, customer service, and keeping our gift shop nice and tidy. Stephanie says working at Wild Spirit where everyone welcomed her and made her feel like family has been life-changing for her.

Merry Smith

Bookkeeper

Merry is the new Bookkeeper and comes to us from the windswept West Texas Plains. After a brief stint as a trapeze artist, Bayou riverboat captain and prospector, she began her career as a bookkeeper. She never wanted to be a bookkeeper, but you don’t choose the bookkeeping life, the bookkeeping life chooses you. And luckily, it’s that choice that brought her to Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary.

Decades of working have given her a huge heart for non-profits and their respective visions. Though Merry is an avid animal lover and owner of a dappled mini para-weenie, she’s never worked with animals with the exception of a feral, bare-footed childhood with her beast of a sibling. While her sibling was eventually tamed, Merry remained a red-headed messy-haired hippie.

She hopes to crunch Wild Spirit’s numbers into submission and form meaningful connections with staff and rescues alike.

Danielle Steakley

Enrichment Program Coordinator/Animal Care Specialist

Danielle has always had a passion for animals especially large carnivores so Wild Spirit is a perfect fit. She has a degree in Exotic Animal Training and Management from Moorpark College. Danielle has lived in California all her life so she was excited to make a change and move to New Mexico for the summer internship, little did she know that her internship would end up with her becoming a staff member. She enjoys the rescue aspect of Wild Spirit and giving animals in need a forever home. A curious fact about Danielle is that she is, in reality, only 11 inches tall, and uses Jedi mind tricks to make herself appear to be much larger.

Victoria Uliano

Grant Coordinator/Donor Relations/Animal Care Specialist

As opposed to many of my fellow animal-lovers, my passion for canines did not start from childhood. In fact, I was scared off of dogs for the first fourteen or so years of my life, after being knocked around by one as a toddler. It wasn’t until after high-school that I felt a draw toward animals, and in a total life-changing decision, I left my major in graphic design and started working at a small town shelter called All Breed Rescue. This ended up being the best decision of my life. I spent the next three years at the shelter, learning everything I could about the domestic dog from medication distribution, to body language and behavioral training. I fell in love with animals and can’t imagine myself doing anything else.

Being a born and raised small town Vermonter, opportunities in the animal care world did not come easily. My time at the shelter had reached a point where I couldn’t learn anything more from them, and I was itching to broaden my experience. My desire to work in animal conservation was only growing, and after hearing about Wild Spirit, I applied as soon as I could. I’ve never been off the East Coast in my life, so it’s a huge but welcomed change. My experiences so far in training here have been amazing. In this short time I’ve learned much about wolves and their differences from domestic dogs, and the team I’m working with is a very close and incredible batch of people. I can’t wait to learn more about the canid family and get the most out of my experience here.

Tim Waite

Web & Multimedia Developer/Part-Time Intergalactic Defender

Tim is responsible for most of the digital madness that happens at the sanctuary. He has worked in a number of tech-related fields, including web design and development, video production, computer networking and server management, and customer support for large broadcast news systems. He spent 13 years in the US Army, including several years overseas, in Germany and two tours in Southwest Asia.

More recently, Tim was a photography instructor at a community art center and taught courses at his own studio, both near his former home, south of Boston, MA. In fact, he and his wife Stephanie came to Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary for the first time in July, 2016, bringing with them ten photography students for an adventure to photograph the wolves. They returned with another group in July, 2017, and that was the end of their time in Massachusetts! They went home after that trip, closed their two successful businesses, sold their house, bought a 36′ RV, and traveled across the country to their new home in Candy Kitchen, NM, arriving in December, 2017, with two dogs and two cats.

Rachel Wawrzynski

Wolf Kitchen Supervisor/USDA Coordinator/Animal Care Specialist

I am from Mars… No, really! I’m from Mars, Pennsylvania! I graduated with a Wildlife and Conservation Biology degree from Ohio University, in 2022. I’ve always loved animals, with a soft spot for large carnivores and reptiles, and am excited to pursue a lifetime working with them. Thank you to Wild Spirit for kick-starting my post-grad life with an awesome opportunity!

Now, take me to your leader…