Clare Malone Prichard, Chair
Clare Malone Prichard is an architect and real estate agent working in San Luis Obispo county. She strives to use her skills to benefit her community, serving on the City of Palo Alto’s Architectural Review Board and also volunteering with Acterra as a judge in their annual Business Environmental Awards program. Several years ago, Clare and her husband rescued an abandoned baby feral pigeon and soon discovered how intelligent and affectionate pigeons can be. They have since adopted additional pigeons from Palomacy as pets, and maintain an outdoor aviary at their home.
Jill McMurchy Shepard, Care Coordinator
Jill McMurchy loves pigeons. And doves. She was bit by a broken zombie pigeon named Elinor she found on the side of the road in 2011 and has been blindly doing their bidding ever since. In her spare time, she is a caregiver to everything needy in existence. She has three grown kids and lives with an always fluctuating number of pigeons and doves, four dogs, three cats, a deer mouse named Bizzie and a couple of humans.
Aileen Paterson
Aileen ‘Ellie’ Paterson is a long-time volunteer animal keeper around the Bay Area, and a frequent volunteer for Palomacy since 2014. She works in university management and thinks that one day she would like to manage a sanctuary, where she can make pretty aviaries, garden with the birds, and clean poop. She lives in Berkeley, CA with Tim (her partner of 13 years), 3 cats, 5 doves, and 2 pigeons.
Cheryl L Dickinson
Cheryl L Dickinson is a resident of Pacifica and native of San Francisco, CA where she obtained a degree in liberal arts with a minor in Accounting. A business professional for 30 years working in the Telecommunications and Real Estate industries, Cheryl worked 1991 through 2017 as a Real Estate Investment Accounting Manager for a Swedish pension fund company. She is an avid animal lover and activist and enjoys spending her time with her dog, cats and pigeons as well as out in nature. In October 2007, Cheryl rescued a King pigeon and since January 2008, has been an active Palomacy volunteer.
Chava Sonnier, Secretary
Chava is a clinical informatics nurse, pigeon rehabber, and bird nerd who lives with her husband, Zach, and the many birds who rescued them and now run the household. Inspired by the work of Palomacy and the great need for pigeon rescue in all geographic areas, Chava co-founded Chicago Pigeon Pets Rescue with 6 close friends in 2018. Now based in Fairfield, California, Chava and Zach continue to focus their bird rehab efforts on helping pigeons and are honored to be Palomacy volunteers.
Christiana and Talma
Christiana Reed
Raised by fabulous parents in an upper middle class American home. No childhood is perfect, but mine was close – was safe and loved, got a great eduction, traveled a lot. Rebelled by going to performing arts school after high school (despite scholarships to some of the best colleges in the country). Spent 3 years in the Citrus College Singers – performed extensively, learned a ton, got my SAG card, and attained peace of mind that the life of a full-time performing artist wasn’t for me. Moved on to Pepperdine University where I got world-class training in Public Relations and could see the Pacific ocean from my dorm. Confronted issues like body image head-on, and ended up with a bachelor’s degree, Magna Cum Laude. After 9 years in the corporate world, I’m currently applying my PR and theatre experience to the world-class work of Illusion Entertainment. It’s a joy and a privilege. The art of grand illusion requires the utmost excellence in design and performance, and I’m thrilled to help facilitate this artistry that delights audiences like nothing else can.
Jenna Close, Treasurer
Jenna is the Co-Founder of Buck The Cubicle, a small but mighty visual storytelling agency (photo & video) that works specifically with values driven brands. She is a longtime mentor for emerging photographers as well as an advocate for creators rights. She served 6 years on the National Board of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), 2 of those years as Chair. In 2017 a young ringneck dove self-rescued to her yard and introduced her to Palomacy. 2 years later a pair of lost racing pigeons arrived, which led her to become a pigeon fanatic. She now has 2 doves and 14 pigeons living in aviaries in her backyard. She is known in certain social media circles as the mom of Moose The Pigeon, who passed away in 2022 but remains large in her heart.
Founder and Executive Director
Elizabeth Young,
Elizabeth with dove Lily & King pigeon Neo
Elizabeth grew up in Las Vegas, graduated with a degree in English from UC Berkeley, worked 13 years on the front lines of the war on poverty as a nonprofit director to reduce poverty and develop self-reliance, spent 6 years making educational toys and in 2007 became an accidental pigeon rescuer. Elizabeth has always loved all animals and had no special interest in pigeons when she began volunteering at the San Francisco Animal Care & Control shelter except concern when she learned they were coming into shelters but not getting out. They were the only animals who had no one helping them. All the others, the dogs and cats, rabbits and rats, parrots and snakes, farmed animals and wildlife, all had at least one rescue to help them. Elizabeth hadn’t intended to start a rescue but she helped a pigeon named Gurumina and then another named Rocky and… now with Palomacy, has saved the lives of more than 1000 directly and helped countless others across the country and beyond.