Gail Pope
President and founder of BrightHaven animal sanctuary
Gail was born in Harrow, England in 1946 and followed careers in banking and the airline industry, before moving to Southern California with Richard and children Kirstie and Justin, then teenagers, and pets to begin a new life. Had someone shown her a picture back then in 1986 of her life now, she would simply not have believed it!
Gail began her involvement with the animal world in the late 80’s—a story for the BrightHaven book in itself—and founded “Cats Are People Too” with Richard in Trabuco Canyon, Southern California. CAPT changed its name in 1993 to reflect their new mission—that of the rescue and enhancement of the lives of senior and special needs animals.
Over the years Gail learned much from the wise—both people and animals, and from the early days began to follow a holistic path as she learned about the circle of life and death naturally. Gail has been truly humbled by the miracles of health and longevity seen as a result, and her passion lies in the areas of hospice, classical veterinary homeopathy and animal Reiki. These days Richard and Gail’s BrightHaven family of animals is much smaller, as BrightHaven is truly a hospice, offering natural care and sanctuary to some, and helping others via consultation, interviews and writings.
Gail loves her busy life, spending her days devoting time to many avenues too numerous to mention, but first and always, the care and love of her own large family of animals. She is actively engaged in the work of the rescue of senior and special needs animals from shelters, via the BrightHaven rescue division and network. Gail also offers wellness and hospice consultations and has released several publications about BrightHaven work:
As Time Goes By,
Into the Light and the most recent publication,
Peace, Hope and Hospice, which is available from lulu.com. Gail is also proud to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (
www.iaahpc.org).
Richard Pope
Founder and director of BrightHaven animal sanctuary
CEO of Genesis World Wide, Director and Project Director of Codding Enterprises, Chairman and CEO of Codding Steel Frame Technologies, & President and CEO of Codding Steel Frame Solutions.
Born in Harmondsworth, a suburb of London, Richard studied Civil Engineering and Technical Design at West London College, Northwood Technical College and Southall College of Building and Engineering. He received a Higher National Diploma in Building Construction and Engineering. Currently, Richard is a member of the Building Industry Association, the National Association of Homebuilders and the Sales & Marketing Council among other organizations and in America alone has overseen the entitlement, building and sale of over two billion dollars worth of homes and commercial properties.
Pope held the position of president for the United States Western division of Taylor Woodrow and was responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations in Southern California, Northern California and Nevada, managing sales in excess of $500 million annually. He is among the most respected and forward-thinking homebuilding leaders in the United States, and brings over twenty years of experience to the construction and residential real estate industry.
Richard is now directing the design, entitlement and implementation of the exciting new Sonoma Mountain Village new urban community, in Rohnert Park near San Francisco. Sonoma Mountain Village has recently been endorsed as a One Planet Community, one of only five in the World; the others include Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and the London Olympics. Sonoma Mountain Village is a $2 billion deeply sustainable project. One Planet Living and One Planet Communities are an initiative of London-based Bioregional and World Wild Life fund.
Richard has also recently been appointed as the CEO for a multi-national publicly owned Canadian steel frame construction company, Genesis. In his new position he will direct all World Wide operations.
Along with his wife Gail, Richard founded BrightHaven in 1989 and has been involved with special needs animals, especially in hospice work, for over 20 years.
Blanca Dominguez
Veterinary Technician
Blanca Dominguez was born in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1981. At the age of fourteen she came to live in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family for the educational opportunities. At an early age, Blanca already had the propensity to dedicate herself to the well-being of animals, often rescuing the abandoned or stray ones and keeping them at home, despite her family’s resistance!
Blanca’s life changed when her beautiful daughter Yanira was born, and she dedicated her young life to caring for her family. Whilst leading a domestic life, Blanca also took pleasure in involving herself in the community as a volunteer teacher’s assistant. Soon, her volunteer work lead to a staff member position at her daughter’s school. Her passion for animals never left her, though, and she soon found BrightHaven, who hired her as a housekeeper and animal sanctuary assistant.
At BrightHaven, Blanca’s natural gift for medical intuition soon became apparent, and now contributes daily to their eternal search for healing and natural balance. Blanca is now head vet tech at BrightHaven. Her love and passion for the animals is obvious as she performs medical tasks, assists in hospice care and is always present to ensure the comfort and well-being of each animal.
Blanca’s hobbies include the art of crafting and design of jewelry, bamboo arrangements and other goodies that are sold at the BrightHaven store to benefit the sanctuary. She lives in Rohnert Park with her daughter, who is now 11 years of age, and her two cats, Princess and Panchis.
Jessica Anderson
Stable Manager/Director of Operations
Jessica was born in Greenbrae, California and grew up in Marin County and the greater Bay Area. At the age of 11, Jessica’s passion for horses brought her to volunteer in Sonoma County where she eventually became an assistant ranch manager at a riding facility in her late teens. After graduating high school, Jessica continued her equine career driving horse and carriage in San Francisco on the busy Fisherman’s Wharf.
Jessica’s interest in holistic healing practices was sparked by the response she saw in the carriage horse’s health after practicing hands-on healing with them. She took a course in animal acupressure and massage in Grass Valley that transformed her experience and relations with the horse community.
Shortly after that, she was hired at BrightHaven to care take the horses and manage the stable volunteers. While looking after the horses, as well as supporting the indoor animals at BrightHaven by doing veterinary technician work, she continued her education at Sonoma State University.
Jessica has recently completed her Bachelor’s degree in psychology and has since become the Director of Operations at BrightHaven.
She lives with her 5-year old cattle dog, Maya, and her 3-year old oriental feline, Isis.
Vicki Sims
Administrative Support and Weekend Animal Care Technician
Vicki Sims joined the BrightHaven team in July 2010, taking over the duties of BrightHaven full-time house keeper. Boy, were we lucky to find her as she is now expanding her talents to help Gail in running the BrightHaven office!!
Vicki has a natural gift for laughing and being joyful, whilst working so efficiently that she frequently leaves us in a spin! Loved greatly and immediately by all the animals, Vicki sank into life at BrightHaven as though she had been with us forever!
Born in Casper, Wyoming, Vicki has lived in California for many years. She has two grown sons, who are the great lights in her life, as well as an adorable new granddaughter! William and Vicki share their home with two rescued cats, Squirrely and Black Kitty. As General Manager of her husband William’s horse ranch, Vicki began the work of rescuing abandoned horses ten years ago, and in 2009 founded her own sanctuary, Sadie’s Haven. Vicki shares our passion for rescuing, helping and caring for the elderly and special needs animals of the world and so she is without doubt a match made in heaven for BrightHaven!
Julie Morrison
Household Manager
Julie is the newest member of our BrightHaven team. She was born and raised in Santa Rosa, Northern California, and has an A.A. in agriculture, received from Santa Rosa Junior College. She has always had a genuine love for animals and has spent over fifteen years volunteering and working with nonprofits, beginning with 5 years as shift supervisor at Sonoma County Bird Rescue. She went on to volunteer at Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue for over seven years.
In early 2010 she began volunteering at BrightHaven and is now a member of the team, working four days a week and sharing the enormous job of sanctuary housekeeping with Vicki.
Julie also enjoys spending time with her two dogs, Lucy, who is in the autumn of her life and Mr. Cheese, otherwise known as the dog who is always smiling! There is another team she loves to support in her spare time and that is the San Francisco 49ers. She is especially proud to be a part of their 2011 Faithful Fan Campaign, being featured in a commercial, and on 49ers Total Access as well as The Chronicle and other print ads.
Fray Huffman
Full Time Volunteer
Raised and educated mostly in the Midwest, in the 70′s Fray relocated to Texas, where she taught special education for several years, before finally making the big move West to explore the delights of California in the mid-80′s.
When BrightHaven moved north, Fray was already well ensconced, having lived in Santa Rosa for fifteen years, pursuing a career in caring for special needs and hospice humans. In April 2002, she became curious to find out more about this animal sanctuary and hospice called BrightHaven, and came for a tour and “stayed.” She has been an essential part of the fabric of daily life since that time.
Her interest these days lies firmly in the world of hospice care for animals and she has been able to experience first hand the transition of many of the BrightHaven animal family, thus learning more and more about this newly emerging aspect of animal care—the BrightHaven way!
